


New Beginnings

by jackandsamforever



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-15
Updated: 2014-02-11
Packaged: 2018-01-01 15:33:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 30,943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1045590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jackandsamforever/pseuds/jackandsamforever
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jacob has passed away. Sam has broken up with Pete, and the Furlings decide to complicate things between Sam and Jack even more than things already were. Wait..the Furlings? What do they have to do with anything?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Authors Note: This is a story set after Jacob's death and Sam's breakup with Pete. I know it's been done to death..but I want to try my hand at it. If it's horrible, I'm so sorry since this is my first foray into writing fanfiction in the Stargate world. I don't know why it's taken me so long to write one.
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing..but I would love to own Syfy and bring back Stargate Universe so we could get a proper ending.

She couldn't believe he was actually gone. Growing up, she never imagined her life turning out the way it has. There have been good things to happen, mainly everything having to do with the Stargate program. But she never imagined pushing forty and being single, childless and without either parent. It depressed her to think about it really. She only had her brother left, and they weren't close. They was going to have to change that soon; maybe at the funeral.

Day of Jacob's funeral

Sam awoke to a piercing sound and shot up out of a deep sleep. She looked over at her alarm clock and saw that that was the offending sound. She sighed, turned it off and laid back down. She really didn't want this day to happen. She wished she had a fast forward button to get through it.

Her phone started ringing and she turned over to where it was lying on her bedside table and looked to see who was calling. It was her brother.

Sam answered, trying to sound cheerful. "Hi, Mark-"

Mark sounded angry, cutting her off, "Sam, where the hell are you? You're supposed to pick us up from the airport."

She groaned, "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, it completely slipped my mind, I'll be there in a half hour."

Still sounding angry, he agreed reluctantly and hung up on her.

"This is soo not going to be my day", she mumbled.

She hurriedly threw on some clothes, not really caring if they matched or not, ran a comb through her hair and ran out to her car. She got in, put the key in and turned it. Nothing. Not even a sound of the engine trying to turn over. She hit the steering wheel, "shit!" That's when Sam heard the rumbling of a truck. She lifted her head from where it was lying on the steering wheel and saw General O'Neill's green Ford.

Sam looked down at herself and groaned. She picked a great time to not care about her appearance. She reluctantly got out of her car to see Jack walking towards her looking perfect. Non-baggy clothes on, hair cut short and combed nicely and clean shaven. In other words, like a freaking dream (not that she ever dreams about him). She sighed and walked towards him.

"Sir, what are you doing here?"

He walked closer to her and she saw that he was eying her wardrobe choice of holy jeans and an old oversized Air Force shirt; she was internally dying of embarrassment. He chose not to say anything about it, just smirked and said, "Carter, it's your Dad's funeral today", he rubbed his hand across the back of his neck and sounded unsure about himself, "and I just was on my way to the mountain to make final arrangements for the funeral and came to see how you were doing. So..how are ya doin?"

She blushed, "Of course Sir, I'm Oka-"

Don't lie to me Carter, ya just lost your Dad. It's okay to be upset."

"Really Sir, I'm just glad I got the time with him that I did. It's hard, but not as hard as it would have been if he had died six years ago."

"Good to hear, Carter." They stood there awkwardly for a few seconds just staring at each other. Sam was the first to break the silence.

"Sir, I'm actually glad you're here. I was supposed to pick Mark and his family up from the airport an hour ago and I completely forgot. I went to leave, but my car won't start. Is there any way you could help me out and take me so Mark doesn't have to take a cab? She was embarrassed to ask, but she didn't see any other option at the moment.

Jack smiled, "Of course, I'm happy to help."

She smiled again, "Thanks so much Sir, you're a life saver."

He smirked, "anytime Carter. It's no problem, really."

They headed for his truck and he surprised her by opening her door for her and offering her a hand up into his truck. She took his proffered hand, still extremely embarrassed about her clothing choices, and stepped up into his truck. He further surprised her by patting her knee before closing the door and walking around to his side. "Why all the sudden touching?" She thought.

She didn't have time to ruminate about it though before she felt his hand on her arm again, startling her. "Sorry Carter, didn't mean to scare ya. I was just asking how long your brother was planning on staying?"

"Just today and tomorrow, he has to be back to work by Monday." His hand was still on her forearm, but she didn't mind, so she didn't move her arm or say anything to bring his attention to it.

He nodded his head and moved his arm to turn on the radio, some kind of talk show, and started the truck. She would never say it out loud, but she missed the warmth of his hand when he moved it. She sighed.

They didn't say much on the trip over, mainly talking about work and funeral arrangements. She liked when she got to talk to "Jack" and not the "General". It reminded her of why she fell for him in the first place, and why it was still a messed up situation between them. Neither of them were willing to break the rules, but neither could bring themselves to transfer so they wouldn't be in each other's chains of command. So here they were, stuck in limbo. She leaned her head on the glass and looked out the window at the passing scenery, wishing this day was over with.

They arrived at the airport, actually making really good time considering everything that had happened already. He parked the truck in short-term parking and told her to sit still. She was confused until she realized that he was going to open her door for her again. Pleasantly surprised, she waited and took the hand he once again offered and stepped out of the truck. He closed the door behind her, but didn't let go of her hand. She was wondering what he was playing at, but figured he was just coddling her because she had just lost her Dad.

Just as she was about to pull her hand away he moved his hand and interlocked his fingers with hers. She looked up at him and he stared back at her with an unreadable expression. She was so damn tired of fighting her feelings for him, so she decided that she was just going to enjoy it while it lasted.

They walked hand in hand to the front doors of the airport and started walking to the terminal that Mark and his family had flown into. The airport was really busy and they kept getting jostled by random strangers trying to make their flight. More than once they got pulled apart, and she was getting annoyed. After the third time of that happening, she felt him put his arm around her waist and pull her tight against his side. Once again she looked up at him, and he leaned down and spoke in her ear, "Sorry Carter, this is just so much easier than trying to keep a hold of your hand."

She turned her head and came within inches of his face. She could see the flecks of gold in his dark brown eyes and found herself mesmerized by them. Someone ran into them and broke the spell. She cleared her throat and said, "Sir, what's going on?"

He had an innocent look on his face and said, "what do you mean, Carter?"

She was frustrated. He knew exactly what she meant, but if he didn't want to tell her, she wasn't going to force him. "Never mind, Sir. Let's just go find Mark."

"Sounds good to me, Sam." Once again surprising her by using her first name. Getting increasingly more curious as to what he was playing at.

As they got into view of the gate, he pulled his arm from around her waist and placed his hand on the small of her back.

She quickly spotted her brother and his family and sped up her walk, leaving Jack to fend for himself.

She walked up to her brother and hugged him. "Mark, it's so good to see you."

He hugged her back. "It's good to see you too Sammy. I'm sorry I was so short with you on the phone, it's just been really hard for me since I found out about Dad's death."

She hugged him again and said, "it's ok, I understand completely."

Sam saw Mark's wife, Trisha, and their two kids Colby and Stephanie, and hugged them all in turn.

She saw Mark eying someone behind her and quickly realized that she had forgotten about Jack.

"Mark, this is my commanding officer, General Jack O'Neill. My car broke down and he was kind enough to give me a ride here so I could pick you up.

Mark looked wary, but shook hands with him. He seemed to be sizing Jack up, probably trying to figure out why her commanding officer was willing to take her anywhere.

Jack spoke up, "it's nice to finally meet you, Mark. I've heard nothing about you." He smiled and it seemed to break the ice between the two and they shared a laugh. Jack clapped Mark on the back and turned to Trisha and the two kids and shook their hands as well. "Nice to finally meet all of you." He was smiling.

Mark spoke up, "let's get going, as much as would love to sit and talk, we have a long day ahead of us." Sam agreed and helped them with their luggage. Jack picked up a suitcase and started leading them out of the airport. She was glad that he wasn't being touchy feely with her family around. She was so not in the mood to answer questions about Jack from her family.

She sighed and followed her family to the truck. She really wished it was Monday already.


	2. Chapter 2

After loading all the luggage into the back of the truck, they all piled into the cab. It was going to be a tight fit. Sam got in and sat in the middle of the front seat, and Mark sat next to her with Trisha and the two kids sitting in the back. After getting in, Jack turned to all of them and smiled.

"Ready to go kids?"

Sam smiled back and said, "Yes, Sir."

He sighed, then frowned and turned on the truck. Sam wondered at that look, but couldn't exactly ask him with her family sitting there, so she sat quietly and stared out the front window.

The ride back to Sam's house was fraught with occasional stilted conversation, but mostly silence at the thought of what was to come later in the day.

Sam had tried to avoid thinking about her Dad really being gone, but it was unavoidable and her eyes suddenly filled up with tears that she tried to desperately hide.

Jack noticed that she was trying not to cry and whispered, "Carter, are you ok?" He looked worried. She knew he was like most men, and didn't have any clue what to do with a crying woman. So she put on a brave face and said,

"Yes, Sir, I'm fine." He looked skeptical but wasn't going to question her in front of everyone else.

They finally arrived at Sam's house and she heaved a relieved sigh. She couldn't take the awkward silence for a second more.

Mark and his family got out, collected their luggage and turned to Sam. She smiled at them and told them to go inside and make themselves at home and that she would be inside in a moment. They walked inside, leaving Jack and herself standing on the sidewalk.

She turned to him and smiled, "Sir, thank you so much-"

Jack cut her off, "Sam, stop with the Sir. We're not at work for cryin' out loud."

She was surprised, "Si—Jack, what's going on? You've been acting weird all day today. What's changed?"

He grimaced and said, "I can't tell you right now, but some things are happening soon that we need to discuss. Not now though, because this is the day to celebrate Jake's life.

At the mention of her father her eyes filled up again. She tried to blink them back but was failing miserably. He put his hand on her arm and pulled her closer. She tried to resist at first but at his insistent pulling she moved towards him, his face an impassive mask. When she got close enough, he put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her to him in a tight hug. She was surprised at first, but didn't offer any resistance. She moved her arms around him, threading her arms under his unzipped jacket and put her face in his neck and just let her emotions go. He pulled her impossibly tighter and started rubbing soothing circles on her back and just held her. He knew she didn't need to be shushed or to be told that it was going to be ok. He knew that she knew that, and that she just needed someone to cry on and be the strong one for her for a few moments.

After what seemed like hours, but was in reality only a couple of minutes, she pulled back and smiled a small smile and said, "Sorry, Si—Jack, I do-"

"Sam, don't worry about it." He still had his arm around her shoulders, "Everyone needs to cry, you can't just hold it in all of the time."

"I know, Sir." He pulled her back into a hug, but she only allowed it for a few moments more before pulling out of his arms completely and stepping back.

"I need to go inside and take care of my family. Thanks again, Sir, for your help." She could see the concern in his dark brown eyes.

"Think nothing of it." He was staring at her intently and he stepped closer to her once again. She tried her best not to step back, but it was taking all of her concentration, so she didn't see Jack leaning his face towards her until she felt his lips on her cheek. He pulled back before she could say anything and started walking back towards his truck, saying over his shoulder, "See ya at the funeral, Sam. Don't be late."

She could hear the sarcasm in his voice but all she could muster was a quiet, "Bye, Sir." Still confused about what had changed that Jack felt he could be affectionate with her in broad daylight.

She realized she was still standing there long after Jack had driven away. She put her troubled thoughts to the back of her mind and made her way into the house to take care of her brother and get ready for the funeral that was going to start in a few hours time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: It's a short one, I'm sorry. I'm thinking I have Shingles (go Google it if you don't know what that is) and I'm in terrible pain. Please let me know what you think! Thanks for all the reviews from the last chapter, you guys are awesome! :)


	3. Chapter 3

Sam walked into the house in a daze, still blindsided by Jack and what he was playing at. She didn't see her brother in the living room sitting on the couch until she heard him clear his throat.

She flinched and tried to clear her expression which was displaying loud and clear her inner turmoil. "Mark! Sorry, I didn't see you there." She smiled, "Do you need help finding anything?"

He just sat there looking at her for a few seconds and Sam wondered why he wasn't saying anything.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, he said quietly. "Sam, what's going on with you and General O'Neill? I know the rules of the military, and I know for a fact that hugging your CO is bending those rules.

Sam's heart skipped a beat. He'd seen them. "Mark, please, I don't want to get into this now. I honestly don't know what's up with him. We've hardly even talked beyond military discussions for months. He knows that I'm having a hard time with Dad passing away, so he's just being a supportive CO, and doing it the only way he knows how.

Mark sighed, running a hand over his face. "I know Sammy, I'm sorry. Military regs have been drilled into my head for years, so sometimes I forget that you guys are friends too."

She felt relieved. At least she wasn't going to have to worry about Mark reporting them or walking up to Jack and knocking him out for "compromising Sam's career" or something equally as horrible. Sometimes having a brother who knew all the military rules sucked.

"It's ok Mark, he really is just trying to be a good friend. We were on the same team for seven years, we're bound to be somewhat close friends." He nodded and she smiled at him and changed the subject.

"So the funeral is in two hours. I need to get ready and get over to the cemetery to help General O'Neill with final arrangements." Of course Jacob's body wasn't in the casket, as the Tok'ra had taken his body and already did their ceremony honoring Selmak and Jacob. Mark didn't need to know that though. They were still going to bury the casket and give Jacob the full military honors that he deserved. Mark really had no idea how much of a hero their Dad was.

Sam continued, "General O'Neill arranged for a car to come pick you guys up and take you to the cemetery. Be ready about a half an hour before the funeral is supposed to start."

Her eyes were starting to tear up again and she angrily wiped them from her face with the back of her hand. She was sick of crying. Mark moved to her and enveloped her into a hug. "Sam, thank you so much for making all the arrangements, it can't have been easy. Don't worry about us, we'll be fine. Just go and do what you have to do."

Sam hugged him back for a few seconds and stepped back, "Thanks Mark, I'm going to go get ready." She smiled at him and walked into her room to get dressed.

Sam got ready in record time, dressed in her dress blues, and was on the road within a half hour. She was supposed to meet Jack and go over what was going to happen at the funeral.

She pulled up to the cemetery and saw that he was already there. He was in his dress blues as well and he looked good in them. Always has. The sunlight was peeking through the clouds, highlighting his hair and making it look white. She liked it when he kept his hair as short as it was now. Shorter than military regulation. Sometimes he let it grow longer than he was supposed to and it just didn't fit him.

Shaking herself from her thoughts, she stepped out of her car and started walking over to him. He noticed her almost right away and gave her a small smile that she could see even as far away as he was.

He walked over to her and said, "Hey Sam, good timing. We're just going over the schedule for the funeral. I was waiting for you to get here to finish the arrangements." In his brown eyes, there was a depth of concern for her that she didn't want to even try and dissect at the moment.

She smiled at him, trying to reassure him with her eyes that she was fine.

"Thanks, Sir." She was still having a hard time calling him Jack, so she fell back on just calling him "Sir" for the moment.

He put his hand on the small of her back and led her over to the funeral director. She tried not to let on how much his touch was affecting her. She thought she was doing a pretty good job until Jack leaned over and spoke quietly, "Sam, relax, there's no one here but us and the funeral director. I don't think he's going to tell on me for bending the frat regs a tiny bit." He smirked.

Sam forced a laugh and nodded but didn't say anything.

They reached the funeral director and Jack said, "Hey Frank, you remember Colonel Samantha Carter?"

Frank smiled and reached his hand out to shake Sam's hand. "Well I've never met her Jack, only spoken to her on the phone, but it's nice to finally meet you Colonel."

She shook his hand, feeling an odd tingle. There was something off about him that Sam couldn't place. She swore that she had seen him before, but she was pretty sure she hadn't.

Feeling her back stiffen, Jack looked down at her. He started tapping his fingers on her back, asking in Morse code what was wrong. Trying to look as inconspicuous as possible.

Sam looked up and him and shook her head minutely, telling him with her eyes "later".

She looked over at Frank; he had an odd look on his face, like he was trying to place her as well.

Deciding to distract him she said, "Nice to finally meet you in person, Frank. Let's get these arrangements done before people start arriving."

He smiled, but something was off about it, not like the one before. "Of course, if you would follow me please."

Jack put his hand on Sam's arm to stop her from following and leaned down and whispered in her ear, his breath hot, "Sam what's going on? Is there something wrong with him?"

She shivered, "I'm not sure, Sir. There's something off about him that I can't place and I swear that I've seen him before. Give me some time to think about it and I'll let you know." She tried to smile reassuringly.

Jack's face was still near her ear as he said, "Ok, Carter, but the moment you remember, let me know. I don't want some enemy blowing up the funeral or somethin'. There's going to be a lot of important people here."

Sam nodded, "Of course, Sir."

She turned to follow Frank, who was looking back at them impatiently. She heard Jack hurry to catch up to her and when he did he walked close enough that their hands kept brushing each other.

She wanted to reach out and hold his hand, but resisted the urge. They were here for her father's funeral, she needed to stop acting like a teenager with a first crush and focus on getting through this day.

They caught up to Frank and he went over the schedule with them for the funeral. He went over who was going to speak and the timing for everything else. Jack, Daniel and Teal'c were all going to speak and Sam and Mark were going to give the eulogy and talk about a few of their favorite memories of their Dad. Then Mark's kids were going to sing a song in tribute to their Grandpa. There was also going to be a twenty-one gun salute and a bagpipe player that was going to play "Going Home" at the end.

As they finished up, people were starting to arrive. They expected a large crowd and a lot of important military people. The Vice-President was also rumored to be attending, but Sam was dubious that he actually would.

She saw Daniel and Teal'c get out of Daniel's car and walked over to them smiling.

"Hey guys, I'm glad you're here. Thanks so much for coming."

Daniel moved over to her, hugged her tight and said into her ear, "Of course we would be here Sam, not only to support you, but Jacob was our friend too."

She nodded, trying to blink back tears. She didn't know what it was about Daniel that always made her weepy when it came to anything emotional.

He released her smiling and Teal'c moved over and hugged her as well.

"ColonelCarter, I am glad we could be here to honor JacobCarter, he was a true warrior in every sense of the word."

Sam smiled, "Thanks, Teal'c. He truly was, wasn't he?"

Smiling, Teal'c said, "Indeed."

Sam stepped back and saw that Jack was there was well. He patted her on the shoulder, acting all commanding officer.

Wiping the tears from her eyes once again she said, "Come on guys, let's get this funeral over with. I for one, am tired of crying and being coddled."

She looked at Jack, he had opened his mouth to argue that he wasn't coddling her, but closed it when she narrowed her eyes at him.

She saw that Mark and his family had arrived and walked over to greet them.

The funeral went off without a hitch. The guys all had very nice things to say and Mark's kids sung very beautifully. Jack sat beside her the whole time in support. When she started to tear up every so often he would reach over and run his fingers over her forearm. She saw Daniel notice it a few times, but he chose to not say anything, just raise his eyebrows at her. She would just raise her eyebrows back until he looked away.

After the twenty-one gun salute and as the bagpipe player walked away playing "Going Home", Sam started crying in earnest. Jack put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. She buried her head in his neck and tried to control her emotions but was having a hard time doing so. She was so tired of being the "strong soldier", and wished that for once she could just be a normal daughter grieving for her lost father.

Jack was rubbing his hand up and down her arm, trying to comfort her. It was helping, but she needed to get herself under control.

She pulled away from Jack, immediately missing his comforting embrace and looked up at him with a small smile, "Sir, I'm ok, you can let go."

She could tell he didn't want to, but trailed his hand across her shoulders and removed his arm anyway.

Sam sighed, she couldn't believe how openly he was touching her and thought for sure she was going to hear about it from one of the many prominent military leaders attending.

As she started looking around she heard Zat fire, "Zat fire?" She thought.

All of a sudden she was engulfed in a bright white light, Jack's shocked face being the last thing she saw.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: Dun, dun, dun. *insert evil maniacal laughter*. Thanks everyone for your reviews and well-wishes. I'm still suffering the effects, but I feel better right now. Who knows how long that will last though. Please read and review, they help me write faster and feel better. :)


	4. Chapter 4

Sam awoke with a groan. She was lying on the ground and couldn't figure out for the life of her why the hell she was doing so. She kept her eyes closed, cataloging any potential injuries.

Her head was pounding like someone was hammering a nail into it and her ribs ached. One or two were probably broken. Great. Just great.

She cracked her eyes open, making sure to stay still in case anyone was watching her. She didn't see anything; well in the area that she could see at least.

She heard a groan come from behind her and froze.

The groan sounded really familiar, but then she heard, "Oh for cryin' out loud. Why does this always happen to me?"

She smiled. At least she wasn't going to be kept in captivity by herself. That was always the worst.

Deciding it was probably safe enough to speak since Jack hadn't been shot down or maimed while doing so, she opened her eyes and sat up.

Turning around she saw Jack lying on the floor, still dressed in his dress blues, with an arm over his face.

"Sir? Are you ok?"

He flinched and pulled his arm away from his face. "Carter?" He squinted, "Hey, what are you doing here?" He said softly and smiled sarcastically.

How she loved that smile. "Hi, Sir." She smiled back, "I just decided to make my Dad's funeral that much more interesting. Because you know funerals are such a drag."

He smirked, "Well I just have to say you did a great job. I was completely surprised."

He started to sit up and groaned. "Shit Carter, I'm pretty sure I have a few broken ribs, and my shoulder is probably dislocated too."

"I have a couple of cracked ribs too, Sir." She grimaced at the thought. "Want me to help you with your shoulder?"

He laughed humorlessly. "Carter, I've experienced first hand your medical expertise, and that is something I never want to happen to me again."

She rolled her eyes, "Sir", she said warningly, "We need to have you as close to 100% as possible, I have no idea what's outside of that door, but we're probably going to have to fight our way out of here."

He groaned again and mumbled, "Fine, let's just get it over with."

"You're going to need to take your jacket off, do you need me to help?"

"I can't do it one-handed Sam, I may be a multi-talented guy, but that's one thing I've never been able to master." She hated it when he was like this. Constantly sarcastic. It got old really fast.

She walked over to him and started unbuttoning his jacket. She avoided looking into his eyes, because she knew that he was going to be staring at her with that unfathomable expression that he'd been using lately when he looked at her.

Finishing with the buttons she started pushing the jacket off of his shoulders. She heard him groan in pain. "Sorry, Sir, just a little more."

He didn't say anything, but she could hear his little grunts of pain as she pushed the jacket completely off and let it fall to the floor. She stepped around him and picked it up, lying it on the stone slab that she guessed was supposed to pass for a bed.

"Ok Sir, now your shirt and tie. I need to be able to see your shoulder."

"Geeze Carter, if you wanted to see me naked all you had to do was ask." She looked up and glared at him.

"Sir, now's not the time for corny jokes." He held up his uninjured arm in surrender.

"Duly noted, you know how cranky I get when I don't know who the bad guys are. I'm just trying to lighten the mood."

She smiled a small smile, "I know, Sir, I guess I'm just a little on edge."

"Gee, I wonder why?" She could hear the smile in his voice.

Deciding not to grace that comment with an answer she said, "Sir, I'm going to pull your shirt out of your pants and help you take it off. Is that ok?"

"Yep, let's get this over with."

She started pulling his shirt out of his pants, stepping close to him and reaching around his waist to untuck the back. She could hear his breathing quicken, but she kept working. Convincing herself that it was not the time to be thinking about how close she was standing to him, and about the fact that she was pretty much undressing him.

She reached up and untied his tie and proceeded to unbutton his shirt.

After that was done, she slowly took off his dress-shirt, trying not to hurt him. She took his shirt and laid it down on top of his jacket and turned back to him.

He was standing in a white sleeveless undershirt. And damn did he look good.

Trying not to let on how much his state of undress was affecting her, she said, "Ok, Sir. Are you ready?"

"No, but do I have a choice?" He looked like he was in lot of pain and she was not looking forward to causing him more.

"No, Sir. I need you to lie down so I can get some leverage." He looked like he was going to argue with her, but she just gave him a look that said "Now". He stepped away from her and laid down on the concrete slab. His injured arm hanging over the side.

She walked over to him, took his arm and laced her fingers through his. Then she placed her foot in his armpit and proceeded to pull slowly but firmly.

He groaned in pain, but she didn't stop and kept pulling hard. He was sweating and mumbling swear words under his breath. Finally after what seemed like forever, she felt his shoulder pop back in place. He let out a curse, "SHIT, Carter, that hurt."

"I know, Sir, but it's done." She kneeled next to his shoulder and started kneading it to make sure it was back in properly.

"Thank goodness." He closed his eyes, trying to recover.

"Sir, I need to look at your ribs too." He cracked open one of his eyes and sighed in resignation.

"Fine, but only if you let me check yours too." She knew that was coming.

"That's fine Sir, but we need to hurry, who knows how much longer we'll be left alone."

She lifted his undershirt up and started prodding his ribs, gauging by his reactions which ones were the injured ones. She didn't think any of them were broken, most likely either bruised or barely cracked.

She told him what she thought, and he agreed with her. "Ok Sam, I need to look at yours now too."

She started taking off her jacket and he said, "What? You're not going to let me undress you? It's only fair." He smirked.

"No, Sir, I don't have an injured arm, so you're out of luck." She smiled a triumphant smile at him.

"Not fair Carter, not fair."

She shot back, "Life's not fair, Sir." He chuckled.

She finished taking off her jacket and unbuttoned her shirt to the bottom of her bra. She was not taking it all the way off. She then laid down on the slab and parted her shirt for him to check her ribs.

He kneeled next to her and started prodding her. It hurt like hell.

"I'm pretty sure you don't have any broken ribs either, Sam. Just bruised."

"Good, that'll make things easier if we have to do any fighting."

He was still running his hand up and down her torso absently, his mind obviously elsewhere.

"Sir", she looked down at her stomach pointedly where he was lightly rubbing her stomach. He looked sheepish.

"Sorry, I was just thinking. Why would they, whomever they are, bring just us here. Why not the other SGC personnel? Or Daniel and Teal'c?"

He had a good point. "I don't know, Sir. Maybe they did and they're in a different room."

"Possibly." He still had a faraway expression.

He had his hand on her shoulder and was just sitting there. She was still half-dressed with her stomach exposed.

"Sir, let me up so I can get dressed. We need to figure out what we're going to do."

He looked at his hand and seemed surprised that he was touching her. He removed it and held out his hand to help her up.

She took it and he pulled her to him in a hug. She didn't know why he was doing it, but figured he needed the comfort as much as she did.

She loved his hugs because he always wrapped his whole body around her and held her tightly. He didn't disappoint this time either. Burying his face in her neck he said, "Sorry Sam, this has been a really shitty day hasn't it?"

She laughed, muffled by his body. "Yes, Sir, it has been."

He stepped back after a minute and started buttoning her shirt for her. She stopped his hands with hers and said, "I can do it."

He just shook his head and continued. Finishing up he patted her shoulder and walked past her to where his clothes were lying.

He put his shirt on and hurriedly buttoned it up. After he was finished he started searching around in his pockets.

Apparently not finding what he was looking for, he bent down and pulled up his pant leg.

"Dammit."

"Sir, what ar-" He didn't let her finish.

"I had a pocket knife and a gun, but they're both gone." He cursed again under his breath.

She hadn't had any weapons on her, so she didn't bother checking her pockets.

Instead she said, "I'm going to go try and open the door, it's the most obvious thing to do, but maybe they forgot to lock it?" She smiled, trying to lighten the mood a little bit.

She walked over to the door and turned the handle. It was open. They never got this lucky.

She heard Jack behind her, "Well spank me rosy."

Stifling her laughter, Sam turned to him and said, "This is a little too easy, don't you think Sir?"

"Of course it is, but what choice do we have?"

She agreed. "Not much." And taking a line from Jack she said, "Let's blow this popsicle stand."

"Sam, you've been spending way too much time around me." She could hear the humor in his voice.

She waited for him to walk over to her and together they poked their heads out into the hallway. It was deserted.

Something was off. She was starting to feel really uneasy.

Jack walked in front of her and started down the hallway. She reluctantly followed him. She wasn't paying attention to him, her mind on other things, and didn't see when he stopped. She ran into him and started to fall. He turned and grabbed her arm, and pulled her close to his side.

He leaned down and whispered into her ear, "Around the corner there's a bunch of furry looking animal thingys. I'm assuming they don't know we "escaped" yet", he put his fingers in quotation marks while saying escaped.

She whispered back, "So what are we going to do, Sir?"

"We're going to turn around and go the other way."

They started back the opposite way they had come, passing their "cell", and running to the end of the hallway. There were four doors.

Jack looked at her and she shrugged.

He picked the one nearest them and peeked his head in. It was an empty room.

He walked to the next door and it was the same. As was the next.

There was only one door left and Sam wasn't hopeful.

Suddenly they heard a high-pitched voice behind them, "What do you think you're doing?"

They turned around slowly and saw about ten of the furry creatures holding gun like weapons on them.

Shit. They were screwed. And to top it off she was feeling really sick to her stomach. She started to sway as well, feeling really light-headed suddenly. She started to fall over and felt Jack catch her.

What the hell was wrong with her?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally feel like I've gotten somewhere with this story. It was frustrating me..haha. What did you guys think? Please review. I love reviews and am grateful for every single one of them. Constructive criticism is also welcome. Thanks for everyone who has already reviewed, I really do appreciate it!


	5. Chapter 5

Sam awoke to a feeling of deja vu. She was once again lying on the hard floor with a pounding headache. She sat up and looked around, seeing that Jack wasn't there this time though. So at least she wasn't experiencing some kind of bizarre time travel.

She stood up with a groan, her ribs really did hurt like a bitch, and walked over to the door, tried turning the handle but it was locked. She could never be that lucky twice in a row.

She didn't know what else to do but sit down and wait to see what was going to happen. She walked over to the bench on unsteady legs and sat down, still feeling really light-headed and a little nauseous, but stocked that up to not having had anything to eat or drink in a while. Her stomach grumbled at the thought and she sighed. As many times as they've been taken and put into captivity, you think that she would be used to it, but it never got any easier.

She laid down and tried to sleep, but the bench was so uncomfortable, even with her jacket rolled up under her head for a pillow. Her thoughts were a whirlwind, not focusing on anything in particular, but usually evolving around Jack.

She heard the door unlock and startled awake. She had actually managed to fall asleep and was disoriented to say the least. She sat up and watched as the furry aliens threw Jack inside and shut the door without even casting her a glance. They looked like large Koala bears and Sam wondered if maybe they were the ever elusive, long thought extinct Furlings. She didn't think the Furlings would keep them in captivity, yet they actually didn't know anything about them so it was definitely possible.

Jack groaned and she stood up and walked over to him.

Kneeling down next to his head she put her hand on his shoulder she said, "Sir, are you ok?"

He rolled over onto his back and squinted at her, "Sam, how many times do I have to tell you, don't get caught by the bad guys?"

Sam smiled, "At least once more, Sir. We wouldn't be SG1 if we didn't get imprisoned at least once a week."

He groaned again and sat up.

"Sir, do you know why they're keeping us here? Or did you at least find out who they are?"

He grimaced and said, "Well from what I can gather, they took us because we're supposedly the best our race has to offer and they wanted to take some samples of our genetics and find out more about us."

She was confused, "Sir, Why didn't they just ask us instead of kidnapping us against our will?"

He shook his head, "I don't know Sam. I asked them what their race is called and said they were-" He hesitated, clearly not wanting to tell her what he knew.

"Sir?"

He sighed, "TheysaidtheywereTheFurlings." He said it fast and without pause, clearly not wanting to deliver the news to her.

She narrowed her eyes, "But, Sir, they're extin-"

He cut her off, "That's only what we heard from the Asgard, Sam. There's never been actual confirmation." She sat back in shock. "They also told me they wanted to disappear off of the other three races' radars because they wanted to perform experiments that they knew the others wouldn't approve of."

"Experiments, Sir?"

He closed his eyes and tilted his head back a little, rubbing his hand over his face. She was suddenly really worried for herself and Jack. "They, uh, they wanted to see how our race reproduces and eh-"

A pit of dread was forming in her stomach. No, this can not be happening to her. It can't be. No way.

She was in denial.

"Jack, how long have we been here?"

He grimaced again, "I'm not exactly sur-"

"SIR, how long?" Tears were starting to form in her eyes. She wiped at them impatiently.

"According to them, around six or seven weeks." His brown eyes were staring at her compassionately.

Suddenly the dizziness and light-headedness made sense.

She didn't want his pity. She was furious. "Son of a BITCH!", she yelled.

He flinched.

"Are you telling me that they impregnated me with your, your-" She couldn't finish. She was mortified and beyond pissed. His continued silence only confirmed what she suspected.

He finally spoke, "Apparently they hired a couple of low-end Goa'uld to create a distraction at Dad's funeral so they could take us fast and unsuspecting. No one knows where we are, Sam. By the time they sorted out that we had been taken and sent out the Prometheus, we were long gone. They left orbit as soon as they took us."

He put his hand on her shoulder, but she quickly stood up and walked as far away from him as she could. Logically she knew this wasn't his fault, but her heart was breaking, and she felt so violated.

She hugged herself and sat down on the bench, still in a daze.

He got the memo and didn't try to move towards her, and just sat there on the floor staring up at her with eyes so dark, they were almost black. She could tell he was worried about her.

She surprised him by speaking up, "Sir", She was trying to recreate some boundaries between them by only calling him "Sir" because that was the only way she knew how, "Why did they tell you all of this? They don't look like the chatty type."

He grabbed his earlobe and pulled it down and tilted his head, "Well, ah, I guess they're done with us. They only wanted to see how a pregnancy began and how the fetus grew within the first six or seven weeks. They've kept us asleep most of the time, only occasionally letting us wake up. This time and the time before when we tried to escape."

She rubbed both hands over her face. She couldn't bring herself to accept what was happening. She didn't understand why races continued to think she and the General were so genetically advanced. The only reason they were any different from others was because of outside influences. Her's because of a Tok'ra and his because of the Ancient head-sucking thing.

"Sam?" She could tell he had been trying to get her attention while she was off in denial land.

"Sorry, Sir, what were you saying?"

"What are we going to do? I mean, ah, uh, we've never..you know..and you're going to come back from being gone for six weeks pregnant with my child."

She still couldn't wrap her head around that. She didn't even know if she wanted to keep the baby. It hadn't been her choice. She had essentially been raped by aliens, even if the father was human.

"I don't know, Sir. I'm still having a hard enough time comprehending everything. Let alone what's going on in my body."

He didn't say anything, but just sighed and laid back down on the floor, closing his eyes. Apparently he was pretty shaken up about everything too. She had to remind herself that he was a victim just as much as she was. None of this was his fault.

"Sir, you can come over and sit by me", she hesitated, "If you want to that is. This bench is a little more comfortable than the floor." She tried to smile, not really succeeding, and patted the space next to her with her hand.

He looked uncertain, but stood up anyway. He walked over to her and removed his coat and sat down next to her. He hesitated, and apparently decided to risk her wrath, because he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close.

She tried to resist for a second, but he was so warm and comforting, so she let him pull her into his side and laid her head on his chest. Listening to the reassuring sounds of his heartbeat. Lub-dub*Lub-dub*Lub-dub.

For the second time in as many hours she startled awake at the sound of the door opening. She realized that she had fallen asleep on the General and hurriedly sat up saying, "Sorry, Sir, I didn't mean to fall asleep on you."

He smiled at her, but his attention was on the door and the Furlings walking through it.

He stood up and in front of her, but she wasn't having any of that and stood up next to him. She wasn't going to be the damsel in distress waiting for her prince to save and protect her. Not that she thought of the General as a prince.

She shook herself mentally, she really needed to focus.

The first Furling that had walked through the door said, "We're back in orbit around Earth. We're going to beam you back down to where we took you from. I would say that I'm sorry for what we did, but I'm really not, we got a lot of good valuable information."

He looked like he was smiling, but she couldn't be sure because of all the hair that was covering his mouth.

Sam wasn't going to let them get away without getting an explanation directly from them. "Listen, you son's of bitches, you don't just get to-"

The Furling cut her off and addressed Jack, "Will you shut your woman up?"

She was angrier than she could ever remember being. So mad that words were escaping her.

Jack looked over at her and could see that she was fuming internally and her face was turning red from anger. "She's not my woman, you already know that, but yet you don't seem to care about the mess you've made."

The Furling laughed. "You're right O'Neill, I don't care. I'm sure you'll figure out whatever you need to eventually. It's been a pleasure "working" with you." He smiled again and walked out the door.

Sam finally found her voice, "You listen here you little fu-", but he was already gone and they could hear his cold laughter reverberating down the corridor.

The remaining Furlings pointed their weapons at them and motioned for them to move. Sam was still extremely mad, but the weapons pointed at her head left her little choice. She picked up her's and Jack's discarded jackets, handed him his, and walked with the Furlings out the door.

She felt Jack move up beside her and and take her hand, he had put his jacket back on. He laced his fingers through hers and kept walking. She looked up at him in question, but he didn't look down at her.

They walked into a room that had some kind of transporter pad in the middle of it. The Furlings pushed them into the middle and without saying anything to them, transported them back down to Earth. The last thing she saw was the cold, unrepentant looks on their faces. They truly didn't care about anything that they had done. Probably thinking they did them a favor by keeping them alive. She wasn't so sure.

They materialized back on Earth at the cemetery where her Dad's funeral had been. It was deserted obviously, as they had been missing for so long. They were probably thought to be dead.

Still holding hands they looked at each other. She didn't know what to say to him. Everything between them was now 100% more complicated and awkward. She was pregnant with his child, and they hadn't even had the chance to try and see if a relationship between them would even work.

Jack stepped in front of her, taking his hand from hers and placing both of them on her shoulders. "Sam, do you remember I needed to tell you some things that were going to be happening with me?"

She hesitated, she didn't want to have this conversation with him right now. Now that things were so messed up and difficult to talk about.

She decided to answer him, "Yes, Sir, but don't you think what's happened to us changes things?"

He looked away, a look of disappointment on his face. "Well I'll tell you what I was going to do, since it doesn't matter now" He was suddenly angry.

"I had worked out with the President to become a consultant at the SGC and essentially become a civilian. I was planning on retiring from the Air Force, Sam. For us. So we could try and see if a relationship between us would work."

She wasn't shocked, because of the way he had been touching her the day of her Dad's funeral and acting like it hadn't mattered. She knew he had something planned, but now those plans were shot to hell.

Her eyes filled up with tears. She didn't know what to say, and knew that anything she did say would sound hollow.

He pulled her into a hug, wrapping his arms around her once again and sighed. "What are we going to do, Sam?"

Her face was in his neck when she said, "I don't know, Sir. I honestly have no clue. I want to find those bastards that did this to me..us..but I don't know where to start."

He finally asked the question that she knew had been on his mind since he found out the news of her pregnancy. "Sam, are you going to keep the baby?"

She didn't want to hurt him with her answer, but didn't know how not to, "I don't know, Sir. I don't know anything right now."

She heard him sigh and she wound her arms under his jacket and pulled him closer. She told herself it was to comfort him, but in actuality it was she who needed the comfort. Her mind was reeling, and she felt like she was drowning in her own mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for kudos everyone. This story has taken a different turn than I had originally planned. Are you guys still interested in the story? I can end it here, or I can keep going. I want to explore what they are going to do about Sam's situation. Please let me know. Thanks again for the support everyone, I really do appreciate it.


	6. Chapter 6

After a few minutes of them standing in the middle of the cemetery, just holding each other, Sam stepped out of his embrace. Trying to physically as well as mentally step back from him.

He let her, and looked at her questioningly.

First things first, they needed to find a way to get back home. It was twenty-minute drive to her house an even longer to Jack's, so they needed to get going because it was going to take a lot longer to walk.

"Sir, we should start walking home and maybe someone will take pity on us and pick us up.

He nodded in agreement, "Yeah, probably, it's almost dark though. So we might be better off finding a cell phone to borrow and call someone."

She liked that idea better. It was freezing cold, the sun was almost down and she was dressed in a skirt. Fan..freaking..tastic.

As they started walking towards the main road Jack sidled up to her and tried to take her hand. Sam moved her hand away from him and looked up at him with an expression that said "Please don't push it right now".

He seemed to understand and sighed, looked away at the distant road and tried to cover his frustration. Not doing a very good job at it.

She pulled her jacket closer around her, it really wasn't built to keep the wearer warm, and brought her hands up to her mouth to blow in them. They were like icicles.

"Sam, stop, let me help you." She stopped and turned towards him, looking at him with a raised eyebrows.

Jack unbuttoned his jacket, took it off and slid it around her shoulders.

Sam tried to object, "Sir, I'm fi-", but he cut her off before she could finish.

"No you're not, just take the damn jacket." So he was angrier than he had let on originally.

She sighed, not seeing a way to turn down his offer without making him even more angry. So she mumbled a "Thanks, Sir", and buttoned his coat over hers.

It made an immediate difference, and she couldn't help but think how cold he was going to get with only a dress shirt on. He had lost his tie at some point and had the top two buttons of the shirt unbuttoned.

He still managed to look good. Damn him.

Shaking herself from her internal debate she said, "Sir, you're going to freeze your ass off if we don't hurry and find a phone or a ride. Let's go."

He didn't say anything and just followed her to the road. She was worried about his silence, but figured it had everything to do with the current "Elephant" hanging between them, rather than him being mad at her over the coat.

She didn't know how to reassure him or make him feel better, because she didn't know how to even make herself feel better about the situation.

Sam had always wanted children, she just didn't think it would come by way of aliens impregnating her with her superior officer's sperm. "Damn the Furlings", she thought.

They walked for what seemed like miles, and there had yet to be a car to pass them on the road. She mentally berated herself for choosing a cemetery so far out in the boonies.

She felt Jack touch her shoulder and started, she forgot that he was probably freezing cold and he most likely thought that Sam was pissed at him. She really needed to talk to him.

No time like the present.

So she hesitantly said, "Sir, we need to talk."

"Oh, whatever about, Sam?"

So he was going to be a sarcastic asshole then. Sometimes she wished he could just act like a grown man and not a child when it came to serious situations, but then yet again he had always acted like this, so it shouldn't surprise her.

"Jack", she said warningly.

He looked over in surprise at her use of his name and held up his hands in surrender, "Sorry Carter, you know how bad I am with serious stuff. I've been thinki-", she cut him off.

"I think we need to have everything confirmed by Doctor Lam before we start having the most important conversation about whether I'm going to keep the baby."

He grimaced but didn't say anything.

She could tell what his opinion on that matter was. He loved kids and was great with him, but he wasn't the one who was raped by aliens (well technically..they just took his sperm), and it wasn't his body that had to go through all the changes over the next seven months.

She felt selfish even thinking that, but her mind was in shambles at the moment.

"I changed my mind, Sir, I don't want to talk anymore." She could feel tears welling up in her eyes, she was doing a good job at hiding that she was from Jack, until she sniffed.

He glanced over at her and put his hand on her arm to stop her from walking. "Sam, we don't have to talk about anything now. Let's just focus on getting back to the base and out of the freezing cold."

Relieved at his words, she smiled faintly and started walking again. She couldn't feel her legs anymore, as they were only covered by hose, and just about everything on her body was aching.

She didn't know if that was because of the pregnancy or because of how long they had been walking.

After another hour or so of walking, they finally came to a gas station. Not one car had passed them the whole time they had been walking.

Turning to Jack she smiled and he smiled back. He put his arm around her shoulders and led her into the gas station. There was no one inside but the attendant.

Jack spoke up so she didn't have to say anything, which she was grateful for, and said, "Hey, we need to use your phone, is that alright?"

The attendant was staring at them with a shocked expression. Sam couldn't figure out why until she saw his eyes glance at a flier to the side of him. She glanced at the flier and saw her and Jack's faces staring back at them.

They were on missing person's fliers. Great, they were about to become national news fodder for the next week or so.

Before they attendant could say anything, Sam, seeing his name was Derrick said, "Hey Derrick, we need to call our superior officers and report in, can you let us use your phone, please?" She smiled hugely and gave him her best doe-eyed look.

Jack saw what she was doing and rolled his eyes.

It was working on Derrick though as he said, "Sure Colonel Carter, and can I just say that I'm so glad you're alive. You both have been thought to be dead for weeks now."

She wasn't surprised, but held out her hand for the phone, which he handed to her with an infatuated smile.

She looked at Jack and saw that he was thinking "Great, another man with a crush on Carter".

She smiled up at him, and reassured him with her eyes that she wasn't interested in anyone else but him.

He smiled down at her and put his arm back around her shoulder and led her outside so they could use the phone without being eavesdropped on.

"Sir, do you want to call or should I?" She was nervous, she didn't know what kind of reception they were going to get. Washington would probably assume they were Goa'ulds trying to infiltrate the SGC.

"I'll do it, Carter. I'm a General, they would expect me to make the call." She could tell he didn't want to.

He still had his arm around her shoulders. Without saying anything he pulled her close to him in a one-armed hug, his other hand holding the phone, and whispered into her ear, "Sam, I'm so sorry for what's going to happen once they recover us. They're going to rake you over the coals and accuse you of breaking frat regs with a superior officer." He kissed her temple and just held her close, breathing her in. She allowed him this, not only because she needed the comfort too, but also because this would probably be the last time in a long time that she would be able to touch him freely without someone staring over their shoulders looking for any and all violations to accuse them of.

"Sir, nothing that's going to happen is going to be your fault. We just need to make sure we tell the truth and hopefully Doctor Lam will be able to find some evidence of alien influence."

He still had his mouth by her temple and said, "It's a lot of what-ifs, but I guess we don't have any other choice other than to not call and run away together to Mexico."

She could tell he was being sarcastic and chose not to comment.

Sam leaned back and took his face in her hands, "Jack, no matter what, we'll be in this together. I promise you I won't make any decisions without first consulting you."

He closed his eyes in relief and Sam suddenly realized that she hadn't been very fair or considerate for his feelings.

He cleared his throat, as though it was tight with emotion that he was trying to control, and said, "Thank you, Sam, you don't know what that means to me." His face was still in his hands and he turned his head and kissed the inside of both of her wrists.

He brought his hands up to hold hers and took them from his face. He smiled faintly and let go of her hands then took the phone that he had tucked into his pants pocket and brought it up to dial it.

He looked nervous; hell she was nervous too.

After dialing it he put it up to his ear, while she waited with bated breath. She tried to piece together the conversation he was having just from hearing his side.

"This is General Jack O'Neill."

"No, this isn't a joke."

"Airman, I need to speak with whomever is in charge of the SGC."

"I don't have proof that I can give you over the phone."

"Just let me talk to him." He was looking really annoyed by this time.

"Fine. Then let me talk to Daniel Jackson."

"I know he works there because this IS General O'Neill."

"For cryin' out loud! Just let me talk to Daniel." He was angry now.

"THANK YOU."

He put his hand over the speaker and said to Sam, "Remind me to whip that Airman's ass when we get there."

She smiled and patted his shoulder, "Yes, Sir, I will."

Someone said something over the phone and Jack turned back to it.

"Yes, this is Jack."

"I promise you this isn't a joke."

He turned to her and held the phone up, "Say Hi, Carter, it's Danny."

"Hi, Daniel. It's really us."

She heard an exclamation, but couldn't tell what he was saying.

Jack turned the phone back to his ear and said, "Danny, calm down, you need to contact the proper people and tell them to come get us. We're stranded in some desolate town with a gas-station and we're freezing our asses off."

"We're in the town a few miles North of where Dad was buried."

"Yes, Yes we'll still be here, just hurry up." He hung up the phone and turned to her.

"Now we wait for the Calvary to come."

She sighed. She just wanted to get this nightmare over with; she wasn't feeling well again and she was so tired.

She swayed on her feet a little bit and Jack grabbed her arm. "Sam, are you ok?" He looked worried.

"Just a little dizzy, Sir, and really tired."

He smacked the side of his head lightly and said, "I'm sorry Carter, I should be taking better care of you."

"It's not your job to take car-", he cut her off,

"Yes it is, don't argue with me, Carter. Let's go inside and sit down and maybe get ol' Derrick to give you something to eat."

She didn't feel like arguing further and just said, "Yes, Sir."

He grabbed her by the elbow and pulled her inside and they walked up to Derrick.

"Hey buddy, Colonel Carter here hasn't had anything to eat for a long time, do you think you could find her something to eat and we'll pay you back when our superiors get here?"

He smiled, "Sure thing General O'Neill, and don't worry about paying us back. Anything we can do to help out the military." He was goofily smiling at Sam again.

Jack cleared his throat and said, "Derrrrick, food?"

He shook out of his reverie, "Sorry General, let me go find something. You can go sit down in that booth over there if you want."

They turned and saw the lone booth that Derrick had referred to. Sam wondered why it was there, but was glad it was.

They walked over to it and Sam slid in on one side. Instead of going to the other side, Jack sat next to her on the same side. He just looked at her, daring her to say something about it, but she refrained from antagonizing him even more. Plus he was warm.

Derrick walked over and put a couple of string cheeses and a bag of chips in front of them and said, "Sorry guys, this is the best I could come up with."

Sam smiled. "It's perfect, thanks so much."

She was really laying it on thick with this kid.

Taking that as a dismissal, he walked away and sat back down behind the counter.

Sam leaned forward and started to eat the string cheese, she gestured to Jack for him to eat, but he just shook his head and said, "You eat it all Sam, I don't need it."

She shrugged and kept eating. He had put his hand on her back and was lazily rubbing it up and down her spine.

She could barely feel it through the two layers that she was wearing, but it still comforted her.

They sat there, Sam eating and Jack with his hand on her back not saying anything, for another hour before they saw headlights.

Jack slid out of the booth, "Finally."

Sam stayed sitting, she was going to let Jack deal with everything, and she didn't even feel guilty about it. Plus she was still exhausted.

As Jack got to the front door, MP's stormed through the door with their guns raised and shouted, "GET ON THE FLOOR AND PUT YOUR HANDS BEHIND YOUR BACK!"

Jack was shocked, "What the HELL are you guys doing? I'm General Jack O'Ne-"

"GET ON THE FLOOR NOW OR WE'LL SHOOT."

Not seeing any other options, he laid on the floor and put his hands behind his back; loudly yelling at anyone who would listen, "You guys are going to be in so much trouble once it's confirmed who I am."

The MP's noticed Sam sitting in the booth and raised their guns once again. Before they could say anything, Sam raised her hands and slid out of the booth.

She walked over, hands in the air, to Jack and laid down next to him.

She looked over at him with fear in her eyes, and he tried to tell her everything was going to be OK with just his facial expressions.

It wasn't working very well, but he couldn't do anything.

The MP's quickly cuffed them both and dragged them out the door in a whirlwind.

Derrick sat there with his mouth open in shock, and said to no one in particular, "What the hell just happened?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heh, another cliffie. Sorry guys, I really do hate it when authors do it to stories I'm reading, but I find it's the best way to get people to come back for more. Please review and tell me what you think. Good or bad. I hate it when I see over a 1,000 people reading my stories but only get like six reviews. I hate begging for reviews too, but look what I'm doing. Anyway..thanks for reading and for the past kudos and reviews. To my American readers, Happy Thanksgiving!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Make sure to read the author's notes at the end..and this chapter will make more sense..don't give up on this story..I am going somewhere with it..promise!

Jack and Sam were dragged to the back of a military truck and shoved inside. Jack kept trying to get someone to listen, but none of the soldiers there were even looking at him. They just grabbed their upper arms and forced them to sit on the bench across from each other.

Sam didn't say anything, and was staring at Jack with wide eyes trying to tell him to shut the hell up before he got them injured or killed.

He kept avoiding her eyes though, "This is absolutely ridiculous. If this was an alien incursion, do you think I would call you guys to come get me?" No answer. Jack sighed, rubbed the side of his face into his shoulder and sat back in defeat.

He finally glanced over at Sam and could see the worry in her eyes. This was the last thing she needed to have happen to her. Her body had been under tremendous stress the last twenty-four hours and he was worried for her health and the baby's. If she wasn't going to worry about the baby, he certainly would enough for the both of them.

After an hour ride in the very uncomfortable and very cold truck, they finally arrived at their destination. Where ever that was they didn't know.

The MP's grabbed their arms and hauled them to their feet and Jack started complaining again, "Quit manhandling us like we're the enemies. We're fellow officers.." The MP cut him off before he could finish.

"Just shut the hell up O'Neill, we have no idea if you really are who you say you are, so let us do our job and quit complaining."

Jack didn't say anything, but Sam could tell he was beyond pissed. These officers obviously didn't know General O'Neill very well.

As they got out of the truck, Sam let out a relieved sigh, they were at Cheyenne Mountain. At least one thing had gone right that night.

The MP's led them to the entrance of the Mountain and Jack sidled up to her, their hands were still handcuffed behind their backs, and whispered, "Sam, are you Ok?"

She looked up at him and nodded, afraid to actually say anything because she felt like she might actually burst into tears. She was feeling really emotional right now, which was probably because of all the damn hormones. Ugh.

He didn't look like he believed her, but he couldn't call her out on it in front of the MP's.

He gave her a look, shook his head and just continued to walk next to her until they got to the elevators.

They got in and were immediately separated, Jack on one side and Sam on the other, with two MP's standing in between them. They rode down inside the mountain and got to the second set of elevators.

They started to move to get out, but one of the MP's grabbed Sam's arm and held her back while the other drug Jack out by himself.

"No, you aren't going to separate us, no way, I won't allow it." He was angry again.

The MP just laughed, and Jack tried to walk back towards Sam, but was stopped by the hulking MP, who grabbed him and hauled him backwards. He easily outweighed O'Neill by fifty pounds so there wasn't much Jack could do.

As the elevator started closing on her, she heard Jack say, "Carter, don't worry, it'll all be straightened out, don't stress over anything." There was worry in his voice.

All she could get out before the door closed was, "Yes, Sir."

Sam and her "guard" rode down their destination and got out. She immediately recognized that it was the floor where the infirmary was, and suddenly felt a lot better about the situation. They were going to get everything sorted out soon and then she and Jack could figure out what was going to happen from there.

The MP led her to the infirmary and she turned to him as they got into the doorway, "Can you please take these handcuffs off? My arms and wrists are killing me." He looked like he was going to refuse her but she continued, "I promise you I'm not going to cause any problems. I'm so tired I could sleep for a week. If you find out that I'm lying to you, feel free to shoot me." She smiled a little at the joke but he didn't even blink. She shrugged and turned her back to him and held up her wrists as far as she could. She heard him sigh in resignation and he pulled out his keys and took off the handcuffs.

She immediately felt the relief and rubbed her wrists to try to get the blood circulating again.

Doctor Lam walked up to them and smiled faintly. "Colonel Carter, it's good to see you again."

Sam smiled but didn't say anything, too exhausted for pleasantries.

Carolyn shrugged and said, "If you'll just come with me, we can get those tests out of the way to confirm that you're actually you." She smiled again and gestured with her arm for her to start walking towards the MRI room. She complied with the MP following at a distance.

They had to do every test that they could possibly do, and it took over an hour for the Doctor to complete them. Sam told Carolyn everything that had happened to them that she could remember, including the suspected pregnancy.

Carolyn sighed, "Colonel, it's going to be awfully hard to prove that the pregnancy was caused by aliens. You realize that right?"

Sam was surprised, "You can't just do an ultrasound or an Amniocentesis to prove it?"

The Doctor shook her head, "I'm not sure if anything would actually show up, and we can't even do an Amnio until you're at least sixteen weeks along. Which reminds me..I want to do an ultrasound to confirm how far along you actually are."

Sam started to panic, if they couldn't tell that the Furlings had done this to her, she and Jack were going to be arrested and court-martialed for fraternization.

She groaned and put her head in her hands, "I can't believe this is happening, this is a complete nightmare."

Carolyn put her hand on her shoulder and patted it. "The good news is that you are definitely "Our" Colonel Carter. There's no evidence of a Goa'uld or anything else. We'll have to wait for the results of your blood tests, but I'm going to safely assume that they'll come back clean as well."

That didn't make Sam feel any better, she already knew she wasn't a Goa'uld.

Carolyn continued, "I'm going to go get the Ultrasound machine, it's an old one, but it'll do what we need it to. If you would, lie back and lift up your shirt and unbutton your skirt."

Sam looked pointedly over at the MP who was standing by the door.

Doctor Lam understood her look and said, "Airman, you can leave now, she's not a threat."

He opened his mouth to argue, but Carolyn just gave him a look and he just nodded instead and said, "I'm going to go report the situation to Colonel Reynolds."

She nodded, "Make sure you tell him to come down here as soon as he can please."

He nodded and left.

Sam was surprised, "Colonel Reynolds is in charge now? I'm shocked they haven't brought in a General."

Carolyn smiled, "They actually were going to bring someone in next week. They knew that Reynolds was the most qualified person to run the SGC in General O'Neill's absence, but it was getting to the point where they needed an actual General."

"Good for him, he's a good Officer." She had always liked Reynolds.

Carolyn smiled and walked away to go get the Ultrasound machine. Sam laid down and untucked her shirt from her skirt, pulled it up, and then unbuttoned her skirt and pulled it down a little. She didn't think her stomach looked any different, maybe a little bloated, but that was it. Of course she was only two or three months along, she didn't really know what she was supposed to look like at this stage.

She was also worried about Jack, and hoped that they had a different doctor confirming he was who he was.

Carolyn walked back over with the machine and got Sam situated how she needed her to be. She squirted some gel on to her lower abdomen and put the wand to her stomach. They could immediately hear the whoosh whoosh of the baby's heartbeat.

Sam didn't know what to think or how to feel. On one hand, this was her and Jack's baby, but on the other hand this wasn't something she had a choice in. This damn pregnancy had been forced onto her.

She started to tear up and Doctor Lam could see that she was upset. She quickly confirmed that the baby was around seven weeks along and then helped Sam to clean up.

"Sam, I want you to go shower and go to bed. You're completely exhausted. You can report to your superiors tomorrow."

She was too tired to argue. "Carolyn, I really need to know what's happened with General O'Neill. He was pretty upset when we were separated." Her voice had taken on a pleading tone that she didn't want the Doctor to hear, but she couldn't tamp it down.

Carolyn nodded, "Sure, Colonel, I'll go find out while you're showering and let you know as soon as I know."

Sam smiled and walked out of the infirmary to the women's locker room. She felt like she was in a daze and as if this whole thing was happening to someone else and not her.

After she was done showering she felt a lot better. At least she could finally change her clothes, even if it was into hospital scrubs. She wasn't going to be picky, because they had already cleared out all of her personal belongings and taken them to her house to be dealt with at a later time.

Sam walked back to the infirmary to find Doctor Lam. She walked through the doorway and immediately saw Jack. She breathed a sigh of relief. He didn't look any worse for wear, and he had already showered and shaved.

He still hadn't noticed her because he was talking to the Doctor. She walked up to them and said, "Hi Sir, I'm glad you're OK. Did you pass all the tests?" She said that last sentence with sarcasm that he picked up right away and smirked, "I sure did Carter, no Goa'uld here."

She smiled and sat on the bed she had been standing by, "That's good news, Sir. Did Doctor Lam fill you in on the rest of the situation?"

He grimace and nodded. "She told me that there's no way to prove that it was the Furlings. So I'm thinking I'm going to be talking the President into a mission to find the damned things and prove our innocence."

She didn't think the President was going to allow such a mission but was too tired to contradict him at the moment. They could deal with that tomorrow. Instead she just nodded and laid down on the bed. "I don't know about you Sir, but I'm so tired that I think I could sleep for two days."

He nodded, "I agree." He laid down in his own bed and pulled the covers up over him.

Doctor Lam smiled at them both and said, "Ok guys, I'll be in my office doing paperwork. If you need anything let me know."

Jack spoke up before she could walk away, "Hey Doc, where's Daniel and Teal'c? I thought they would be the first ones down here."

"They wanted to, but there were under direct orders to not set foot down here until we said they could. I'll allow them to come tomorrow. Get some sleep now."

The both nodded and she walked away.

Jack looked over at her with emotions in his eyes that Sam wasn't ready to think about. She smiled over at him faintly and said, "Good night, Sir."

He looked disappointed, "Night, Carter, don't let the bug beds bite."

She turned away from him and closed her eyes. Suddenly she felt a hand on her side and jumped.

"Shh, Sam, it's just me. I just wanted to let you know that we ARE going to figure this all out. You mean too much to me to let go."

She didn't know what to say and then felt him lean over and kiss her cheek. She stiffened at the contact, but then forced herself to relax. "Sir, the cameras."

She heard him sigh and he patted her shoulder, "You're right, Carter, I'm sorry. Night."

Sam hated that she was shutting him out, but she didn't want to make anything worse for them. She turned over again and fell asleep, her thoughts troubled.

What Sam nor Jack didn't hear as they fell asleep was the faint high pitched chatter in the background, or the laughing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edit: For those of you questioning the plausibility of some things this chapter..just remember not everything is as it appears to be...
> 
> Thanks so much for the reviews and kudos everyone. I really do appreciate them. Please let me know what you think. This was kind of a transitional chapter, lots of interesting stuff to come. Thanks for reading. :)


	8. Chapter 8

Jack was awoken by voices that he couldn't quite place. He kept his eyes shut and his body relaxed in case someone was watching him, and just listened for more of the sounds.

It was the same high-pitched voices of the Furlings that he remembered from before...but how was that possible? The Furlings had beamed him and Sam back down to Earth. They had fallen asleep in the infirmary at the SGC and had vowed to figure out the situation with Sam's pregnancy.

What the hell was going on?

Not hearing the voices anymore he cracked his eyes open and tried to see where he was. It definitely wasn't the SGC. It didn't look like anywhere he had ever seen on Earth either. "Oh no. Oh HELL no. This was NOT happening to him again."

He didn't think there was anyone else in the room so he opened his eyes completely and groaned. This was definitely a ship and it was one that he had seen before. The damned Furlings. He'd thought that he was done with them, but apparently they had tricked him into thinking that it was over, when in reality they were extracting information or who knows what else from him.

He tried to sit up, but his arms were restrained by straps. Dammit.

They weren't very tight though, as if they knew he wouldn't be any trouble and didn't bother to tighten the restraints.

At least one thing was going right for him at the moment.

He wriggled his arms as much as he could, and kept at it for a few more minutes, when his hand finally slipped through. He grinned in triumph and quickly made short work of the other restraint on his other wrist. His legs were also in straps and he hurriedly undid them as well. He didn't know how much longer he was going to be left alone and didn't want to be there when the Furlings got back.

He was dressed in white hospital like scrubs, but the top was sleeveless and the bottoms were shorts. He also didn't have any shoes or socks on.

After releasing himself he ran a hand over his face and felt the full and thick beard. So they had been there for a while. Just great.

He slipped off the table and crept to the doorway, peeking his head out into the hallway, it was deserted.

He needed to find Sam and he hoped that she was on the same ship and not on a different one than him.

Standing there, he realized that the floor was really cold and his feet were freezing.

Trying to ignore his tingly feet, he quickly sneaked into the hallway and looked left and right. There were doors everywhere, how the hell was he supposed to find her?

He walked to the first door and opened it, it was just some sort of supply closet. Shrugging, he closed it quietly and walked to the next door.

Opening it slowly, he peered inside, and quickly shut it. There were two of the aliens inside performing some kind of experiment, apparently too busy to notice the door opening. Scientists really were the same everywhere.

Sighing, he moved to the next door and opened it slowly again. He saw Sam lying on the same kind of bed that he had woken up on. He felt so relieved that his knees went weak for a moment.

Getting himself together he assessed the situation. There were two more Furlings reading some instruments and had still not noticed him.

They really weren't very worried about their safety apparently if they didn't lock doors or restrain their prisoners very well.

The Furlings weren't very big, only coming up to his chest and probably not weighing much more than a human child. He could easily overtake them and they were standing right next to each other. They couldn't have made it much easier for him.

Since he had the element of surprise, he rushed at them and tackled them both to the ground at the same time, they let out tiny little squeaks of surprise, but couldn't get much more out before Jack punched them both in their furry faces and knocked them out.

He was breathing hard, it had obviously been a while since he had done any kind of physical activity as well, only confirming further that they had been on this ship for a long time.

He turned to Sam and tried to wake her up by shaking her shoulder. Nothing.

"Carter", no response, "Sam", still no response, "Colonel Samantha Carter, your commanding officer is giving you a direct order to wake the HELL up!"

That did the trick. Her eyes flew open, and she tried to sit up, but started panicking because she couldn't sit up.

"Sir, what's going on? Why am I restrained?

Before he could answer any of her questions, she looked around and said, "This isn't the SGC, I fell asleep in the infirmary, what the hell is going on?"

Jack placed his hand on her shoulder and leaned close to her face, trying to get her to look him in the eyes. She finally made eye contact with him. "Carter, I'm like 99.9% sure we're still on the Furling's ship. They created some kind of elaborate scenario in our heads to convince us that we were home."

She had opened her mouth to ask something else, but he didn't let her start. "I don't have any other information other than that, but I'm pretty sure we were in the same illusions, so what you remember is what I remember."

Carter nodded, "I agree, Sir. I thought there were a lot of odd things going on after we got beamed down to Earth, but I thought it was just me being paranoid.

There's no way the military would have put "Missing person's" fliers out, and we wouldn't have been treated that way by MP's. They also would have let Daniel and Teal'c down to see us. I was just so damn tired that I didn't piece it all together."

Jack nodded in agreement, "It was weird for me too, because after we got separated they just took me to a room and did a medical exam. I never saw another General or any higher-ups. They would have brought someone in to debrief me right away. But, like you, I was too tired and worried about your pregnancy to question it too much." He banged his hand on the side of his head lightly. "It's so obvious now, Carter."

Her eyes took on a panicked look, "Sir, do you think I'm actually pregnant?"

He looked at her sympathetically, "I don't know, and we don't have time to worry about that now. We need to get off this ship, and maybe take a Furling or two hostage so we can get some information from them."

Sam nodded in agreement and Jack began undoing her restraints. He undid her legs first then leaned close to her to unstrap her arms. Before he could step back though, she reached her hand up, put it on his beard and lightly scratched it with her fingernails.

"Sir, how long have we been here?"

He was too shocked at her boldness and it took him a second to form a response, "Well considering it would take me a couple of months to grow this long and thick of a beard, I would say a while." He tried to smile but she still had her hand on his face and was lost in thought.

He cleared his throat and she quickly pulled her hand from his face, "Sorry, Sir." She looked embarrassed.

"Don't worry about it. Let's get out of here."

He reached his hand out for her to take and helped her off of the table. She was dressed the same way as Jack.

She was a little unsteady at first and Jack put his arm around her waist to stabilize her.

She looked up at him in thanks and he squeezed her waist in response.

They stared at each other for a moment, and he started to lean towards her.

Realizing that they still needed to get off the ship, Sam said, "Sir, we need to get out of here before it's discovered that we've escaped."

He blinked, "Right, Sorry Carter. Let's go." He let go of her and walked to the door. She immediately missed the warmth of his hand and sighed. She really did have it bad for him, and wished she didn't, because it would make her life much more simple.

Jack looked back out into the hallway and again it was deserted. These Furlings really were a special kind of stupid. That thought made him chuckle out loud.

"Sir? What's so funny?"

"Nothing, Carter, come on."

He reached out his hand for her to take and she hesitated for only a moment and took it, he then proceeded to interlace their fingers and led them down the hallway.

They hadn't come across any other Furlings on their travel of ship and Sam thought that was really odd. Still holding hands they made their way to a set of double doors.

Jack assumed this was the bridge because it was a sliding door and it was bigger than anything else they had come across.

He let go of her hand and crept up to the door. It didn't open. He looked at the opening mechanism on the wall, shrugged his shoulders and pushed all the buttons at once.

The door slid open and he glanced at Sam in triumph. She rolled her eyes and moved in behind him while he assessed the situation.

He signaled back to her with his fingers that there were two aliens and that he wanted her to swing around to the other side when he gave the signal so they could rush in at the Furlings together.

They heard the Furlings start chattering, probably wondering why the door opened and no one was there.

They heard footsteps coming towards them and Jack made the signal for them to go. He rushed at one of them and she quickly followed after him and tackled the other one.

He easily took care of his Furling and turned to Sam and watched her dispatch hers with ease as well. These Furlings were definitely not built to be fighters.

"Carter, will you take a look at the readings on the monitors and see if you can tell where we are? I'm going to tie these furballs up."

"Sure, Sir, I'm not sure I'll be able to make heads or tails, but I can try."

He nodded and went to find something to tie the aliens up with.

He found some kind of rope in a closet and returned to find Sam hunched over a display.

"Carter?"

She looked over at him and winced, "Sir, I can't understand anything on these readouts. We're going to have to ask them." She pointed to the unconscious Furlings.

He grimaced, "I was afraid of that."

He quickly tied up their hands and feet and set them up against a wall. Now they had to wait for them to wake up.

Jack sat down on one of the chairs and yawned loudly. "I am so ready for my own bed again. My back is killing me."

"I agree, Sir. I'm not feeling too well either."

Jack looked at her knowingly and she just nodded. Apparently they shared the same worry that she was actually pregnant.

He stood up and said, "Here, come sit down, I'm going to try and wake furball one and furball two up."

She smiled faintly and sat down in the seat that he had vacated. Sighing in relief.

Jack walked over to Furlings and said, "Hey, wake up!" Nothing happened.

He leaned down and shook their shoulders. Still nothing.

"Dammit."

Leaning forward he slapped at their faces. That did the trick.

Both of their eyes flew open at the same time and they started chattering, "What do you think you are doing? How did you get out of your restraints?"

Jack cut them off before they could keep talking, "Hey furballs, listen up, you're going to give us the answers we want, and then you're going to take us back to Earth and leave us the hell alone for the rest of your lives. You got that? And if you decide not to cooperate, there are some nice airlocks we can throw you out of."

The Furlings looked at him fearfully and just nodded their furry heads.

Jack looked at Carter and she nodded at him in encouragement. She was going to let him do the talking.

"First things first, Why did you take us?"

The first Furling hesitantly spoke up, "We were curious about humans, we haven't had much contact with you and we wanted to know everything possible."

Jack sighed, "For cryin' out loud, why didn't you just ASK us?"

The Furling shook its head, "We don't ask inferior races for anything."

So they were one of those races. Great.

Jack was indignant, "Inferior? Seriously?" Sam cleared her throat, indicating that he needed to move on. He smiled faintly at her.

"How long have you held us here?" His eyes were boring holes into theirs.

"You have been here for almost twelve cycles, which is three of your months."

Jack had suspected that, so he wasn't surprised.

"Where's the rest of your crew? "

The other Furling finally spoke up, looking fearful. "There are only six of us. We're just a science vessel sent out to study other races."

Jack shook his head, "Why did you chose Carter and I then, we're not any more special than anyone other human."

The first one spoke up again, "You are mistaken O'Neill. You and Colonel Carter are very interesting to other races, including us. We've heard a great many things from others about you two. We know you're especially valuable to the Asgard. They don't know we're still alive, but we still hear many things from them."

Sam was looking at them incredulously. These aliens really were stupid. "Do you not realize that once we get back and tell them of your existence that they'll hunt you down?"

The Furlings looked at each other nervously. "We did not think about that. We were only curious about you. We really meant you no harm, we're a peaceful race."

Jack barked a laugh, "Right, well you make sure and tell the Asgards that when they find you."

"Please, O'Neill you hav-", Jack cut them off.

"I don't HAVE to do anything. Now I want you to tell Carter how to steer this ship back to Earth so we can get home. I haven't had a beer in months, let alone a pee."

Sam stood up and walked over to them, "Sir, can I ask them something?"

He smiled and gestured with his hand, "By all means, go ahead Carter."

She looked nervous and Jack realized what she was going to ask them. He didn't know if he wanted to know the answer either.

She didn't waste any time. "Am I really pregnant?"

The Furlings just looked at her fearfully.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. Please let me know what you think. Reviews help me write faster. :)


	9. Chapter 9

he Furlings just stared at her. Not saying anything.

Sam snapped her fingers at them in impatience, "Hello? Am I?"

The first one squinted its eyes at her. "We cannot say."

Sam was confused. "Andddd..why is that?"

They were silent once again. Jack stepped up and leaned close to them, "Answer the question dammit!"

It just shook its head and closed its eyes. Jack turned his head and looked at Sam, bewildered at the sudden silence of the Furlings.

Jack decided to try one more time. "Hey look at me." It took a second, but it opened its eyes once again and stared at him. "Can you at least tell me why you can't tell us?"

The Furling looked at him fearfully. "We are not allowed to. We aren't even supposed to be speaking to an inferior race at all. We will get in trouble once they find out that we did."

Jack sighed and rubbed his neck. Was it really that important that they find out now? He just wanted to get home and they could sort everything out there eventually. Plus he wanted to contact Thor as soon as possible and tell him about their new friends."

He looked back at Sam, who had sat back down in the chair, and shook his head. She closed her eyes in defeat and laid her head back on the headrest. He could hear her groan of frustration from where he stood.

He looked down at the Furlings, who were once again looking at each other and having some sort of silent conversation, ignoring him completely. He wondered if they could communicate telepathically.

Shaking his head, he made his way over to Sam. "Carter, are you ok? You don't look so good." He grimaced after saying that, but she didn't seem to notice how his sentence sounded.

"I'm not, Sir. I'm really nauseous and dizzy. I don't know if it's from lack of nutrition or something else."

Jack looked at her sympathetically, "As much as I hate to make you stand up, we need to get this ship moving in the direction of Earth." He held his hand out to help her up from where she sat. She took it and stood up, immediately swaying. She closed her eyes to try and center herself, but it didn't seem to be helping.

Jack pulled her to him, wrapped his arms around her and tucked her head under his chin. She resisted at first, but found leaning against him was helping her dizziness. She let herself relax into him and closed her eyes, breathing through in through her nose and out her mouth. She still felt like she was going to throw up.

After a few minutes the nausea started to pass and she let go of her grip on Jack's back and stepped away. "I think I'm ok now, Sir."

He let her step out of his embrace and said, "Are you sure, Carter?"

"Yes, Sir. Lets go home." She smiled faintly at him and walked over to the monitors again.

Jack needed to figure out how to get the Furlings to talk, so they could tell Carter how to drive the ship.

"Hey, you need to tell us right now how to get this ship moving. We ARE going home whether you like it or not."

The just sat there and stared at him. Not saying a word.

Jack was pissed now. "For cryin' out loud, tell Carter here how to drive the damn ship!"

The second one finally decided to talk. "O'Neill we cannot help you." It hesitated. "You'll find out why soon enough"

Jack furrowed his eyebrows and crossed his arms, trying to look as intimidating as possible. "What the hell does that mean?"

It shook its head, once again repeating what they had already been saying. "We cannot say."

Jack ran his hands through his hair in frustration, pulling it upwards.

He walked up to the first one and grabbed it by its ears, pulling hard, and said in a low voice, "I don't care if you furballs get in trouble, all I care about is getting home. Now tell me how the hell to do that!"

The Furling squeaked in pain, but refused to answer. Jack looked over at the other Furling angrily, but it just stared at him with no emotion in its eyes. Apparently these two would rather die than give up the information he seeked.

He released the Furling and stood up. They looked up at him and he saw one of them gave him a little grin.

That did it. He grabbed the smiling Furling by its face and started punching it, "Tell me what I need to know!" He yelled. Still nothing.

Sam turned around and saw what Jack was doing and hurried over to him, putting her hand on top of his head, "Sir! They aren't going to talk. And I think I know why."

He stopped punching the Furling and looked up at her. She was looking out the front viewing window and pointing with the hand that wasn't resting on his head.

He stood up, her hand dropping, and looked where she was pointin. There was a huge alien ship right in front of them, and from the sounds coming from the monitors they were trying to communicate with them.

Jack groaned, "Shit".

The first Furling spoke up, "That is why we didn't have to tell you anything. We had our battleship coming to escort us to our home planet."

This time Sam swore, "Shit."

Jack put his arm around her and tried to tell her with his eyes that it was going to be ok. It didn't look like she believed him.

He released Sam and turned back to the Furlings, "So..what? You're going to take us back to your planet and kill us? Keep us as prisoners for the rest of our lives? Experiment on us?"

The second one shook its head. "We intend to return you to your planet after a certain amount of time."

Jack said menacingly, "Well how long is that going to be for?"

"We have already said too much. You will find out everything you need to know from our superiors. Now let us out of our restraints so you will not be killed when they transport over here and see you holding us against our will."

Jack frowned, he didn't want to do that, but didn't see any other options. They were about to be out manned and out gunned.

He looked at Carter to see what her opinion was, and she just nodded, agreeing that they should do what the Furling said to do.

He walked over to them and let them out of their restraints. They were just standing up from the floor when fifteen or twenty Furlings burst through the door, holding gun looking weapons

Jack and Sam put their hands up in the universal sign of surrender. Jack was staring at them murderously. This day was turning out to be a horrible day.

One of the Furlings stepped forward, looking at Jack disdainfully. He turned his head to the scientist Furling, "Why are the prisoners awake and out of their rooms?"

The scientist grimaced and said, "Commandant, they tried to escape, but now that you're here things are under control again. The plan has been successful and is ready to be moved to the next phase."

The Commandant sneered and Jack, which made his blood boil. "Hey Furball, why don't you just kill us and get it over with? I want no part in your experiments."

That pissed the Furling off, "Your tone is intolerable! If you want to live, you will cooperate, or I will kill off your female companion and make you watch. Then find another human female to complete our plan."

Jack shut his mouth reluctantly. He didn't want to be responsible for anyone's death, most of all Carter's.

He held up his hands. "Fine, but I'll have you know that I plan to kill each and every one of you for this."

The Commandant laughed coldly. He really didn't give a shit about them at all. "Oh O'Neill, you won't ever get the chance." He turned to another Furling. "Grab them and lets get over to our ship. We've been sitting in this region of space for too long as it is."

O'Neill and Carter went without resistance. O'Neill, because he didn't want to get Carter killed, and Sam, because she still was feeling really sick.

They transported to the other ship and were promptly thrown into a holding cell without another word said to them.

O'Neill quipped, "Carter, why do we always end up in prison?"

Sam grimaced, sitting next to him on the narrow bench, "I don't know, Sir. But I'm getting really tired of it."

"Me too, me too." He looked over at her and saw that her eyes were drooping. He was tired too.

He put his arm around her waist and pulled her towards him. She sighed, and let him pull her to his side, laying her head on his chest.

He rubbed his hand up and down her side a little and spoke into her hair, "Carter, go ahead and sleep, I'll take first watch."

She was too tired to argue and nodded. Finally letting herself relax enough to fall asleep.

Sam awoke to Jack softly shaking her, "Carter, wake up, we have company."

She stiffened, remembering everything at once, and sat up. Jack dropped his arm from her waist and sat up straight as well.

It was a couple of the grunt Furlings that walked into their cell. "Stand up and put your hands behind your backs. It's time to go." They were smirking.

He mumbled to Sam out of the corner of his mouth, "Carter, say something funny so I don't go Ape shit and kill them."

She smiled faintly, "Sir, I'm not funny or punny." That did it.

Jack smiled, "Punny Carter? Is that even a word?" She smiled back.

"No idea, Sir."

The Furlings walked over to them, put restraints around their wrists, and pushed them out of the cell.

They walked down long hallways that looked like every other ship they had been on. Although there was a certain coldness to it though, and that made Jack worried for himself and Carter. The Furlings really had no sympathy or emotion towards their human prisoners.

They were passing another doorway when the ship shuddered. They all fell to ground.

Jack groaned, he had landed on his ribs, and they hurt like a bitch. He turned to Carter and could tell she was in pain as well. "Carter, you ok?"

Her voice was faint, "I will be, Sir."

The ship shuddered again, apparently they were under attack. Jack didn't know whether to be happy or worried that the attackers might be worse than the Furlings.

The laid there, occasionally being thrown around, and listening to the weapons fire. Their Furling escorts had run away, probably to the bridge, and left them there.

Now was the perfect time to escape.

Jack maneuvered his way over to the wall and pushed himself up. He walked over to Carter, who was trying to get her feet under her as well. He turned his back to her and leaned down and grabbed her bicep, pulling her to her feet.

"Thanks, Sir."

He turned around and smiled, "Not a problem, now we need to get out of here."

"Agreed, Sir. I think we should go that way." She nodded her head at the corridor to their right.

He shrugged, "Your guess is as good as mine."

Before they could take more than two steps they felt the familiar tingle of a transporter beam.

 

They materialized on the bridge of another ship.

"O'Neill. It is good to see you again."

That voice was music to his ears. He turned around.

"Thor, Buddy!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the Kudos' and the reviews. Please let me know what you think about this chapter. Thanks for reading. Have a happy Wednesday (or Thursday).


	10. Chapter 10

Jack smiled widely at Thor, who was standing behind one of the ship's monitors.

"Thor, how the hell did you find us?"

Thor looked at him unblinkingly, "Now is not the time for that discussion, O'Neill. I am transporting all the aliens into prison cells on this ship while their shields are still disabled. After I am finished, then we can "talk"."

Jack blinked in surprise, he didn't think he had ever heard that long of a speech come out of Thor's mouth.

Jack nodded and turned to Sam. She was leaning against a console with her eyes closed, breathing in and out. He was really worried for her. "Carter, are you ok?"

Keeping her eyes closed she said, "No, Sir. I feel like I'm going to pass out."

That really worried him, because she never told him the truth about her health, unless it was truly serious.

He grabbed her arm and said, "Carter, c'mon, you need to sit down." She didn't resist and let him lead her to a chair on the bridge to sit down.

Sam sat down and laid her head down on her arms that were folded on one side of the armrest. Jack put his hand on her head and said, "I'm going to go talk to Thor, I'll be back Carter." She just nodded, not even lifting her head.

Jack walked over to Thor. "Hey, buddy, are you done transporting the Furlings over here?"  
Thor looked as shocked as an Asgard could look. "Furlings, O'Neill? They are long ago extinct."

Jack smirked, happy that he finally knew something that the Asgards didn't, "Well you're wrong about that, buddy. They're the ones that kidnapped us and did some kinds of experiments on us." He nodded towards Carter, who was still sitting motionless in the chair. "Carter over there hasn't been feeling well for a while now. Could you use your scanny thingy and see what's wrong with her?"

Jack really wished the Asgard's were able to show emotion, because he was sure that Thor would have a dumfounded look on his face at the news about the Furlings. He smiled internally.

"Of course, O'Neill, please collect Colonel Carter and follow me."

He walked over to Sam and put his hand on her head again, "Carter, Thor is going to run a scan on you to see what's going on, is that ok?"

She slowly lifted her head up, her skin had a grayish tinge to it, and made Jack even more worried.

"Yes, Sir. I want to know what's going on as much or more than you do." She tried to stand up but couldn't quite make it, and looked up at him with wide eyes, looking extremely worried. She couldn't remember ever feeling like this.

Jack grabbed her hand and pulled her up, slipping his arm around her waist for support. She wrapped her arm around his waist as well and let him lead her to where Thor was walking.

They followed Thor into a medical looking room with three pods lined up in the middle of the room.

"O'Neill, put her in the middle pod and I will begin my scan immediately."

Jack walked Carter over to the pod and helped her inside. She looked scared, and Jack smiled softly to try to reassure her.

The pod door slid closed and Thor began his scan. Jack nervously paced in front of Thor, hoping it wasn't going to be what he suspected.

"It is done O'Neill." Jack furrowed his eyebrows. "And?..."

"It would be prudent to remove Colonel Carter from the pod first so I can tell you both at the same time."

He was right of course, but Jack still huffed in annoyance. "Right." He walked over to Sam and helped her out. "Sir, what's wrong with me?"

Jack grimaced, "He wouldn't tell me until you joined the party, Carter."

She tried to smile, but failed. "Well let's get it over with then, Sir."

They walked back over to Thor, Jack's hand under her elbow in support and waited for Thor to tell them the news.

"Colonel Carter..it appears that you are with child." He immediately felt Sam sag against him and he put his arm back around her waist. She groaned.

"This can not be happening. Why the hell would the Furlings want to impregnate me?"

"I can not answer that question for them Colonel Carter, but I can terminate the pregnancy if you so wish me to."

Sam and Jack spoke up at the same time, "No!"

Jack looked at Sam in apology, "Sorry Carter, I know I don't have any say in the matter." She grimaced.

Sam turned to Thor, "Can you determine who the father is, Thor?"

"Yes, Colonel Carter. The fetus' DNA is a match to yours and O'Neill's. I took the liberty and ran it against his DNA since we already have it in our computer system."

O'Neill wasn't completely surprised, but he still hated the Furlings even more for doing this to them, her especially.

Sam looked up at Jack with tears in her eyes. She looked completely devastated, remembering in their shared illusions on the Furling ship her worries about getting in trouble.

Jack tried to reassure her, "Carter, they aren't going to charge us with Fraternization and court martial us or dishonorably discharge us. They saw us get taken from Dad's funeral, and when we return with Thor he can explain everything."

"I know, Sir. It still complicates our situation immensely."

Jack sighed, "I realize that, Sam, but I'll support you in whatever you decide to do."

Sam put her hand on his arm, "Sir, I'm not going to terminate the pregnancy, although it's not under the best of circumstances, it's still giving me what I've always wanted. A child." She smiled, "And I'll allow you whatever role you want in the baby's life. I won't deny you a chance at being a father again."

He smiled at her in relief, but from the way she was talking, it didn't sound like she wanted any kind of romantic relationship with him.

He felt devastated, but did he best to hide it from her. He would be there and support her in any way she would allow him to and not let his feelings for her get in the way.

Decided, he said, "Thank you, Sam. People like me don't often get a second chance."

She patted his arm and looked at Thor, "How far along am I exactly?"

Thor, who had been watching their exchange with obvious interest said, "You are approximately eleven weeks, and the fetus appears to be healthy and thriving in its environment. Would you like to know the sex?"

She shook her head, "No, I don't want to know right now. It's just easier not to know." Jack thought she still looked upset, let alone the fact that he could tell she was still feeling really sick.

"Hey Thor, can you give her anything to help her feel better? She's so sick she can barely stand."

Thor nodded. "I can give her something to take the edge off, but it will come back within six hours or so."

Sam nodded, "That's fine, Thor, I need something desperately. Plus I need to eat something, I'm starving." Sam suddenly remembered the kind of "food" Thor provided and grimaced. She was going to have to choke it down though, because beggars couldn't be choosers.

"I will provide you sustenance Colonel Carter, and I will get you something to make you feel better as well." She nodded in thanks as he walked out of the room.

She turned to Jack and smiled at him a little awkwardly. She honestly didn't know what to say, and hoped to hell it wasn't going to be this awkward for the next six months. They're lives were going to be intertwined for a lot of years and they needed to figure out a way to work together while raising a child at the same time.

It didn't sound to her like Jack wanted to pursue a relationship with her, and that made her more sad than she liked to admit. If he just wanted to help raise their child without pursuing anything romantically then she would have to accept that and move on.

He put his arm around her shoulders and squeezed her arm in comfort then removed it and said, "Hey Carter, we need to talk to the Furlings and see if we can get them to tell us the reason they kidnapped us and gave you a..uhh..a..baby." He was rubbing his neck nervously.

She smiled at his attempt to avoid saying baby. "I agree, Sir, although I'm not sure they'll talk."

Jack was angry again, not at her, but the Furlings."Well we have to try, I need answers and I know you want them too."

"Yes, Sir." She was sagging against the console again and Jack wished Thor would hurry the hell up.

Just as he thought that, Thor walked in and over to Sam. "I'm going to inject you with this, Colonel Carter, it is perfectly safe and will make you feel better." She nodded her assent and Thor injected her in the neck.

Jack could see the immediate relief on her face. Thor then went over to a console and replicated some "food" for her. Her face wrinkled in disgust as she picked up a yellow one and put it into her mouth. He could tell she wanted to spit it out, but determinedly chewed and swallowed it. "Thanks, Thor."

"You are very welcome, Colonel Carter. Shall we go down to the cells and speak to the Furlings now? I have many questions and I'm sure you do as well."

Jack and Sam nodded and followed Thor out of the room. Jack put his hand on the small of Sam's back as they walked and she smiled internally. There was hope for them yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So should I continue this story and write their journey with her pregnancy...or end it if/when they get back to Earth? I didn't get very many reviews from last chapter, so I'm genuinely curious if there is much interest left for a baby fic with some twists and turns. Thanks for reading and let me know what you want! Have a good Saturday (or Sunday).


	11. Chapter 11

They followed Thor down to the ship's holding cells, taking more than one lift to get there. Jack surreptitiously studied Sam as they continued their decent into the bowels of the ship and thought she was looking better, but she was still unconsciously leaning against his chest slightly as he stood behind her. She obviously still wasn't 100% and they needed to get back to Earth as soon as possible so she could get proper care. As they continued to descend, Jack finally asked the question that he had been the most curious about since Thor had rescued them. "Hey Thor, how the hell did you find us?"

Thor turned around and blinked. "After you were taken, your government contacted me and asked me to come immediately. I made it to Earth within a day of your abduction and was able to pick up on the Ion trail of the ship that had taken you. I followed it for months, but they always seemed to elude my capture. I assume I got close enough one day and was able to pick up your locator beacons. The rest, as you say O'Neill, was history."

Jack smirked at the Thor's use of an Earth euphemism. "Well I think I can speak for the both of us when I say, Thank you."

"It was my pleasure, O'Neill. I consider us to be good friends and allies and I was going to do my best to find you." Jack smiled as he felt the lift come to a stop. Grateful for the little alien and his naked ass.

Thor stepped out of the lift and led them down to the holding cells. Jack chuckled out loud at the sight. There were at least ten Furlings stuffed in every one of the ten cells and they were looking at Jack and Sam murderously as they made their way over to them.

The Commandant stood up, pushing others out of his way to get to the front of the cell, "What is the meaning of this Asgard?" He said Asgard with a sneer in his voice. "You have no right to treat us like enemies."

Thor blinked, showing no outward emotion; not that he was capable of much any way. "You have kidnapped our allies and performed unsanctioned experiments on them. What would you have me do Furling?"

The Furling narrowed its furry eyebrows, "We have every right to do what we believe to be necessary for our race. Humans are beneath us and you as well Asgard. Why do you ally yourselves with such a weak race?"

Jack had been watching their exchange with interest but bristled at that last statement. "Hey, stop talking about us like we're not here. We get you think that humans are beneath you, but can you quit insulting us? News Flash...WE. GET. IT."

Thor and the Commandant both turned at the same time, but it was the Furling that spoke first. "You do not understand the reasons behind your and Carter's abductions, so I would suggest you don't talk unless you are qualified to."

Jack started walking towards the Furling; he was going to wring its scrawny neck. At the last moment Sam grabbed his elbow, "Sir, why don't we hear them out before we do something we might regret." He looked back at her and sighed. She was right, but he still didn't have to like it.

He put his hands up in resignation, her hand falling away from his elbow,"Fine, Carter, we'll do it your way."

She smiled faintly and addressed the Asgard, "Hey, Thor, do you mind if we ask some questions first?"

"Not at all Colonel Carter, would you like me to leave while you question them?"

Sam shook her head, "No, you can stay, they'll probably be more likely to answer our questions if you're here."

The Commandant snorted in the background and mumbled something that they couldn't make out.

That made Jack angry all over again and he stalked toward the Furling, "What was that furball? You wanna repeat what you just said?"

The Furling glowered at him and said nothing, so Jack continued, "We have some questions for you guys and you're going to answer them or I'll have Thor send you back to your ship with no oxygen, and you'll die a slow death..you got that?"

The Commandant reluctantly nodded its head, obviously figuring out they weren't ever going to get out of the cells unless they answered some questions.

Sam walked over to Jack and stood next to him to show the Furlings they were a united front.

Jack started with the most obvious question, "Why did you impregnate Carter here? He nodded his head at her.

The Furling grimaced and was silent for more than a few seconds, but then reluctantly began, "We haven't been in contact with any other races for generations. We hid from our allies for our own reasons and completely stopped exploring."

Jack was confused and wondered what this had to do with Carter, "Why?"

That made the Commandant mad, "Do not cut me off anymore O'Neill, or I will not answer any more questions!"

"Sorry furball." He gestured with his hand in a waving motion, "Carry on."

The Furling took a deep breath and continued, "The high council decided that the only way to save our race from Goa'uld invasion was to fake our races' demise, move to a new home planet and completely shut down space exploration. The Goa'uld were slowly starting to take over our galaxy, so it seemed like a wise decision at the time."

It walked closer to the bars and continued its tale, "Fast-forward 2,000 years and here we are. We have no idea what's out in space anymore, nor how any of the races function. Our information is over 2,000 years old, so our council decided it was time to quit living in fear and ordered us out into space to gather as many races as possible, a male and a female from each. Then we were to impregnate each female with the male's seed and have her come to term, then take the offspring and raise them on our planet so we could study them further, while returning the male and female to their planets. Not ever being fully aware of what had happened to them or that the female had given birth."

Jack was surprised at how chatty the Furling was being, but figured it just wanted to get it all out and once so it didn't have to keep answering questions from an "inferior" race.

Sam was fuming at his side, "That's ridiculous! Why couldn't you just ask us to give you that information?"

"As we have stated before Human, we do not speak to inferior races and we learn best by actual doing, not simply reading words off a page."

She clenched her jaw and fists and stood there ram-rod straight in silent fury. Jack didn't blame her, he was pissed too. He put his hand on her shoulder, squeezed it gently then whispered, "Sam, you need to calm down, I understand why you're mad, but staying mad isn't going to help in this situation."

She turned her head and glared at him, but he just looked at her until her features finally relaxed. "You're right, Sir. These hormones are already playing havoc with my emotions." He ran the hand that was on her shoulder down her back and rubbed her lower back for a moment. She looked over at him in question and he realized he was being a little too touchy-feely and removed his hand with a small smile, then turned back to the Furling.

"So why are we different? Why did I wake up?"

It frowned, with a perplexed expression on its face. "We do not know O'Neill, you should not have."

Jack smirked, "Well if you guys would have done your homework, you would have found out that I'm part Ancient."

That got the expected reaction he hoped for from the Furlings as they all started chattering in a different language at once.

The Commandant held up its hand and all the Furlings all stopped talking at once. "How is this possible, Human? The Ancients would have never bred with an inferior race."

Jack grinned triumphantly and shook his head, "Why should I tell you anything that you want to know?" I think I'll let you guys figure the rest out on your own."

He turned to Sam, "Carter, do you have any questions for the furballs?" She shook her head. She had already heard more than enough.

Jack nodded and turned to Thor, "Hey buddy, I think we've gotten all the information that we're gonna get. Can you take us home now?"

"Indeed, O'Neill, we are already on our way to Earth. I plan on obtaining reinforcement from Orilla then returning to where the Furling ship is, transporting the Furlings back over to it, and then following them to their home planet. We will then try to find all these offspring that have been born of different races and return them to their home planets." Jack opened his mouth to ask another question, but Thor continued before he could ask it. "Do not worry O'Neill, now that we know the Furlings are not actually extinct, we will keep a close eye on them."

Jack wasn't convinced that the Asgard could actually control them, but wasn't going to say that and risk insulting him.

Sam had been silent through most of the conversation, and he figured it was because she had other things on her mind. Not that he could blame her.

He put his hand under her elbow and pulled a little. She startled, as if her thoughts had been a mile away. "Are we going home, Sir?"

He nodded and tugged her elbow again to get her walking. She fell into step beside him as he answered her question quietly, "Yeah, supposedly we're almost there, Carter." He hesitated, "I don't know about you, but I don't trust the Asgard's ability to control the Furlings."

She grimaced, "I agree, Sir. I think we need to be very careful in the coming months."

The last thing he wanted to be doing was to be constantly worrying about whether or not the Furlings were going to come back and steal Sam and the baby.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

As Jack and Sam made their way out of the holding cells they didn't notice the Commandant glaring at them. He made a vow to take the human's offspring when it was time. He wasn't going to fail his superiors orders. He smiled at his self-reassurance and watched Thor leave behind the humans. He would get his revenge with the Asgard too.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

With his hand back to resting on her lower back, Jack and Sam made their way to the bridge, seeing Earth rotating in front of them for the first time in months.

Sam smiled serenely and said, "I've never been so glad to see Earth."

Jack nodded in agreement and they stood there looking at it until they heard Thor speak up, "O'Neill, Colonel Carter, I have contacted the SGC and apprised them of the situation. They told me that you are expected to transport down as soon as possible."

Jack dropped his hand from Sam's back, turned to Thor, and knelt so he could be eye-level with the tiny gray alien. "Just wanted to say Thank you, buddy."

"Think nothing of it, O'Neill, I am just glad that I was able to locate the both of you. It is time to go now."

Sam spoke up, "Wait, Thor, can I give you a hug?"

Thor looked as terrified as a blank face could look and Jack laughed internally.

"If you wish Colonel Carter."

Sam knelt next to him and hugged him gently, "Thanks so much for everything, Thor. We owe you our lives."

"You are welcome, now it is really time for you to go."

Sam stood up and walked back over to Jack's side, waiting for Thor to transport them home. Thor walked over to the console, "Goodbye my friends, until next time."

They nodded and felt the familiar tingling sensation as they transported down to Earth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the Kudos. Please let me know what you think about this chapter..feedback is always appreciated! Thanks for reading.


	12. Chapter 12

The were transported into the middle of the gateroom and it was almost comical to watch the guards trip over themselves trying to raise their guns, before realizing who it actually was and lowering their guns sheepishly. Jack smirked and said, "Hey everyone, long time no see!"

Over the speaker a voice rang out over the commotion, "General O'Neill, Colonel Carter, it's good to see you again."

O'Neill recognized the voice right away and looked up to see General Hammond smiling down at them. "George! It's been a while." He smirked.

Hammond chuckled, "If you guys would report to the infirmary ASAP we can get your medical exams out of the way and we can get you debriefed. I'm sure you're ready to get home."

Sam grimaced at the thought of what was to come. They wouldn't be going home tonight, she was almost sure of that.

"Yes, Sir." He sarcastically saluted Hammond and put his hand on the small of Sam's back, propelling her out of the gate room quickly, leaving behind some confused Airmen and Marines. They all shrugged at each other and resumed their duties. They would find out the information they wanted soon enough.

Jack and Sam walked into the infirmary and stood in the doorway, searching for Dr. Lam. They saw her sitting at her desk and Jack walked over and rapped his knuckles on the door frame. She looked up and smiled, "Welcome back General O'Neill and Colonel Carter."

"Hiya Doc, let's get this physical over with eh?" She nodded and looked over at Carter, who was looking pale and sickly. "General, I think I'm going to start with Colonel Carter if you don't mind."

He shook his head, "I was going to suggest it anyway. Did General Hammond brief you on the situation?"

She nodded and grimaced, "Yes he did. If you want to go sit in those chairs by my office", she pointed behind him, "I'll start with Colonel Carter's physical."

Jack saw Sam shake her head, "Doctor Lam, if you don't mind, I'd like General O'Neill to be there during the ultrasound."

Carolyn shrugged her shoulders, "I don't mind as long as you don't. Why don't you go change into these scrubs and come back. I'll talk with the General while you're doing that."

Sam nodded and walked into the bathroom leaving Jack alone with the Doctor.

Lam walked over to him, "I'm assuming that Thor did a medical scan on you as well?" Jack shook his head, "No he didn't, but there's nothing wrong with me. They just took my...stuff." He was still uncomfortable talking about the subject.

She smiled, "Well then after we're done with Colonel Carter, I want to do an MRI and do blood work too. Why don't you go shower and change and come back when you're done."

He wasn't able to think of an excuse to stay close to Sam, so he nodded and walked out of the infirmary to the men's locker room.

Sam finished changing, walked back into the main room and saw that Jack was gone. Carolyn must have noticed the questioning look on Sam's face, "He went to shower and change. We need to hurry this along, there are superior officers waiting to debrief you guys. Sam grimaced. She just wanted to go and sleep, not talk for another two hours.

Sighing, she walked over to the bed that Carolyn indicated and sat down on it. The Doctor took all her vitals, drew blood to confirm the pregnancy, did an MRI, a CT scan and declared her healthy as she could be under the circumstances.

Just as they were finishing up Jack walked in looking refreshed and clean-shaven. He smiled at the women, "How's it goin?"

Sam smiled faintly, "We're done, Sir, just need to do the ultrasound." She sounded nervous, but Jack didn't understand why because Thor had already confirmed everything was ok.

He nodded, walked over to her side and laid his hand next to hers, not quite touching her, but the sentiment was the same.

Doctor Lam wheeled the ultrasound machine over and helped Sam get situated. Jack tried not to look at Sam's flat stomach as the Doctor squeezed some gel on,it, but was having a hard time not staring. His child was in there. Their child. It was hard for him to suppress how happy he was that he was getting a second chance to be a Dad.

Lam started moving the wand around and they immediately heard the heartbeat, which sounded strong and steady. Carolyn smiled, "Everything looks great and the fetus is about eleven weeks old. I'm sure you already know that from Thor's scan, but we had to confirm it for our records."

Sam and Jack nodded and the Doctor finished up quickly, giving Sam a towel to wipe her stomach off. Jack took the towel from her after she finished and put it on the next bed over, then held his hand out to help her sit up. She took it, sat up and Jack put his hand on her shoulder, patting it comfortingly. She turned her head and smiled faintly at him.

Sam hadn't said much since they got back and he was more than worried about her state of mind.

Dr. Lam walked back over, "Sam, your turn for a shower while I examine General O'Neill."

Sam nodded, glancing back at Jack once, who gave her a smile, and made her way to the women's locker room.

They finished with Jack's examination and Carolyn declared him to be healthy as well, if not a bit underweight, but that would come back with consuming real food.

Sam walked in after her shower looking a little better, but still exhausted and said, "Sir, they're waiting for us upstairs in the debriefing room."

He nodded and said to the Doctor, "Thanks Doc, see ya up there." Carolyn smiled, nodded and made her way into her office as Jack gestured with his hand for Carter to precede him into the hallway.

The walked into the elevator and Sam pushed the button for the floor they needed to go, then stepped back next to him and sighed.

"Carter, are you ok?"

She rolled her neck forwards and backwards, "I'm just tired, Sir, and don't feel like re-telling everything we've gone through."

He put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her into a soft embrace. She went willingly, wound her arms around his waist and sighed into his neck as if she had just needed a little human contact for comfort. Jack was immensely glad there weren't cameras in the elevators.

They stood in an embrace until the elevator started to slow down, but before she could pull away, he tightened his arms for a moment and kissed her temple, "Everything's gonna work out Carter", which he heard her muffled reply of "Yes, Sir", then pulled away from her completely and stepped back.

They walked into the briefing room together and stopped to survey the room. Every chair was filled with higher-ups, including the Vice-President, save for two chairs by General Hammond. They made their way over to the chairs and sat down. Sam sighed internally and geared herself up for a long boring meeting.

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

The meeting lasted three hours. Three. Freaking. Hours.

Sam honestly didn't know why they even needed to be there, because the last hour and a half was dominated by something completely unrelated to them and their situation. They couldn't have just stood up and left though, so they were stuck listening to them argue about politics and jurisdiction.

Jack had been drawing pictures the last hour or so and he and Sam were currently playing a game of hangman. She was winning three games to one. He really wasn't that good at it, but at least he was trying to entertain them both.

Their superiors had come to the conclusion, after hearing Dr. Lam's findings and Thor's report, that Sam and Jack were both cleared of any wrong-doing and were assured that no other punishment would befall them.

Sam was taken off of SG1, which she wasn't surprised at, because pregnant women weren't allowed to gate travel. She just hoped she could get back on a team eventually.

There was still the problem of Jack being her superior officer, which was what they had been arguing about an hour ago, but had abruptly moved on to other subjects, apparently leaving that topic alone for the moment.

Sam didn't know how that was going to work out either, but was tired of thinking about it.

General Hammond finally stood up, "Ok, I think we need to end this meeting now. We're just talking in circles and General O'Neill and Colonel Carter haven't even had a chance to eat anything." He turned to them and smiled, "As soon as you guys eat, I'm ordering you to go home and stay away from the base for the rest of the week."

They nodded, stood up from their chairs, and walked out of the room. Hurrying as fast as possible so they wouldn't be called back.

They made it to the elevator just as the doors were opening and saw that Daniel and Teal'c were inside. Sam smiled hugely as Daniel stepped out and hugged her tightly, "We heard you guys were back, but you were in that meeting for so long we decided to come see what was taking so long." He let go of Sam and smiled, "It's so good to see you guys, we were beginning to think Thor was never going to find you."

He walked over to Jack and gave him as hug as Teal'c stepped out and hugged Sam carefully. "It is good to see you well ColonelCarter." She hugged Teal'c to her tightly, her eyes filling up with tears, "You guys have no idea how good it is to see you."

Daniel stepped back from Jack, "Oh we have a good idea. We've been moping around for three months, so I'm sure General Hammond is even happier than we are to see you." He laughed.

Jack slapped Teal'c on the back, "We were just going to go eat, I feel like I haven't eaten in months. Do you guys want to come?"

Teal'c nodded and Daniel said, "Sure, we need to catch up anyway. We know the most important details, but need some things filled in."

Jack nodded and herded them back into the elevator with his arms, "Let's go then."

The made it to the mess hall and ate while they told Teal'c and Daniel everything that had happened. After they finished, Daniel had a disbelieving look on his face, "I can't believe the Furlings would do something like that. Everything that I've ever read about them seemed to indicate they were friendly."

Jack shrugged, "Yeah well apparently someone failed to update the records." He was exhausted by this point, and after glancing at Sam, realized she was even more so.

They needed to go. "Hey guys, so do we still have our houses and cars?"

Daniel nodded, "Yeah we kept everything. We were planning on selling your houses at the end of the month, so good thing you came back when you did."

Jack smiled faintly, "Yeah, good thing, but hey we're both tired and ready to go home. Can you give us a ride?"

Daniel nodded, "Sure. Let me go get my stuff and I'll meet you up top, Ok?"

Jack nodded as Teal'c and Daniel walked out. He turned to Sam, "Carter, do you want to just stay at my house tonight? You can take my bed and I'll sleep in the spare room."

She looked like she was going to refuse, but at the last moment changed her mind and nodded, "Sounds good, Sir. I don't care where I sleep, I just want to do it somewhere." She smiled as he stood up and offered his hand to help her up, too exhausted to care if they were watching the cameras, took his hand and kept hold of it as they made their way up to the entrance.

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

They arrived at Jack's house within a half hour, but Sam hadn't even made it fifteen, and had her head on Jack's shoulder in the backseat, sound asleep. He was loathe to wake her up, but they needed to get inside. He moved his shoulder a little to jostle her, but she didn't even stir. "Sam." Nothing. "Carter!" She snorted and shot up from his shoulder, "Are we there, Sir?"

He nodded, "Yeah, you can get out now." He turned to Daniel, "Thanks for the ride, Danny, you want to come over tomorrow?"

Daniel nodded, "Sure, I'll bring Teal'c too."

Jack clapped Daniel on the shoulder and got out of the car where Sam was waiting for him. He smiled at her as Daniel drove away behind them.

"You ready for bed Carter?"

She blushed and looked down, "Yes, Sir."

He put his hand on her back, led her to his front door and unlocked it. He went in first and immediately turned up the heat. It was freezing cold. Sam stood in the doorway shivering, and he walked over to her, pulled her out of it and led her to the living room.

"Do ya want anything to drink?"

She shook her head, "I just want to go to bed, Sir."

He nodded and gestured with his hand to follow him to his bedroom. He walked in and found her a pair of sweats and a sweatshirt for her to sleep in and handed them to her with a smirk. They were both going to be huge on her, but it was better than sleeping in BDU's. "This is the smallest stuff I own, sorry Carter."

She shrugged as he walked over to the bed and pulled down the covers. It looked like they had been changed recently and he was eternally grateful for Danny and Teal'cs help.

"Thank you, Sir. I really appreciate you letting me stay here. I wasn't sure if I wanted to be alone and you made it an easy decision."

He smiled and walked over to her. "Carter, I want to help you in any way that you'll let me and I'm going to be here for you every step of the way." He put his hands on her shoulders, leaned forward and kissed her forehead. "Now get some sleep. I'll be in the next room over if you need anything. Please don't hesitate to ask."

She nodded and he let go of her, wishing he could sleep in the same bed as her. Not to do anything, but just to sleep.

Just as he crossed the doorway he heard her whisper, "Goodnight, Jack."

He was surprised at her use of his first name, but made sure not to make a big deal out of it, "Night, Sam, see ya in the morning." Then he made his way into his room to get some much needed sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading..please let me know what you think!


	13. Chapter 13

**Three months later**

Sam groaned. The baby had been kicking her bladder for the last half hour and she couldn't get up to use the bathroom because she was in the middle of a very important experiment that couldn't be left alone.

The baby kicked again and Sam started rubbing her belly where the little foot was to try to get it to stop. She was six months along and felt like a tank even though she still had three months left. The thought depressed her.

Her and Jack still hadn't figured out their complicated relationship. She had spent a lot of time at his house and he at hers, but nothing had progressed with them.

Sure they might occasionally cuddle on the couch when they watched TV, or he would give her a foot rub after a particular long day at the SGC, but nothing else. Sam was beyond frustrated with him.

Of course it was partly her fault, because it's not like she volunteered to talk about anything and he was a mental midget when it came to talking about anything related to feelings. They were doomed to stay like this until someone "grew a pair" and forced the other to talk it out. Then there was the other matter of them still being in the same chain of command, although the President had never said that they couldn't get together. She didn't know anymore.

Today was not the day for any of those talks though, because they were going together to find out whether they were going to have a boy or girl. Sam was excited but nervous, because she didn't know how Jack would react if it was a boy.

She continued to rub her belly and felt the it move away from where she was rubbing, easing the pressure off of her bladder. She sighed in relief and checked on her experiment. So far so good.

Sam heard footsteps approaching her lab and immediately recognized them as Jacks. She tried not to grimace at the butterflies that suddenly started playing havoc in her stomach. Why did she have to have that reaction every time she thought about him or saw him? She felt like a teenager with her first crush and they weren't even together. Yet.

Jack's head poked around the corner, his hair sticking up at all angles, which she found in the last few months she absolutely loved. It was a little longer than she liked, but he still managed to look good all the time

"Carrrrrrter." He had stepped into her lab and was waving a hand in front of her face.

She startled out of her damning thoughts and smiled faintly, "Hi Sir, sorry I was thinking about...quarks and didn't hear you come in."

He smirked and waved his hand, "It's fine, whatcha doin?"

"I'm trying to determine if in an imperfectly conducting fluid, the magnetic field can..."

He waved her off, "Carter, you do know that when I ask that, I'm not actually _asking_..right?"

She smiled and nodded, "Yes, Sir..what's up?"

Jack rubbed his hand on the back of his neck, "Er, yeah...are you ready to go?"

Sam was surprised, "It's time already?"

He nodded and smiled, "Yep, it's time. You always get sidetracked in your lab. You shouldn't be surprised."

She grimaced, he was right. Guess she was going to have to scrap that experiment and do it another time. She quickly shut down her machine and stood up, it was too fast though and she felt a little light-headed.

Jack quickly grabbed her elbow and helped her steady herself, "You ok, Carter?"

She nodded, "Yes, Sir, just got up too fast. I'm good now, let's go."

They made their way out of her lab, Jack's hand hovering at her elbow but not touching it, and walked in to the infirmary.

Doctor Lam smiled at them as she saw them, "Hey, you guys ready to find out?"

Sam and Jack both nodded and she led them over to a bed that was already set up for her.

She helped Sam get situated and prepped, then moved the wand over her stomach.

Doctor Lam smiled immediately, "Well I definitely know what gender the baby is..are you sure you want to know?"

They both nodded, looking nervous. "I'm about 99.9% sure you're having a boy. Congratulations."

She saw Jack stiffen next to her, but he quickly recovered and smiled faintly at Sam. "A boy..wow."

He blew out a breath, then picked up a towel and wiped Sam's stomach off for her, not saying anything else. She smiled at him in thanks, but was worried about his reaction. They obviously couldn't talk about it here in front of the Doctor though.

She sat up with Jack's help, "Thanks Carolyn, I'm just glad I know what color to buy his things in now."

Carolyn smiled and patted her leg, "I'm so happy for you both. Take it easy now, I don't want to see you in here because you're not taking proper care of yourself."

Sam nodded, "Don't worry, it's hard not to with him kicking my insides all the time."

The Doctor smiled and walked away to help someone who had just walked in and looked to be in pain.

Jack helped her down from the bed and they walked together to the elevators. It was time to go home.

He spoke up, "Do you want to go out to eat and celebrate?" He didn't look like he really wanted to.

"No, let's just order in, if that's ok with you?"

He smiled, "My house or yours?"

Sam had her stuff divided equally at both places, so it didn't really matter to her. She shrugged, "My house?"

"That's fine, how about I go pick up some food and meet you there?" They had stepped in the elevator and he pushed the button for the floor they wanted.

"Sounds good, see you in an hour or so?"

He nodded and stepped closer to her, then hesitated. She looked up at him with a quizzical eyebrow.

Decided, he stepped forward and kissed her on the cheek, lingering there for a few seconds, his face rough with stubble, then pulled her into a loose embrace and whispered in her ear. "See you in an hour."

The elevator slowed down and he stepped back, then as soon as the doors opened he stepped out and didn't look back. She was so damned tired of not knowing where she stood with him. There were instances like this where he acted like he loved her, then there were other times where she honestly didn't know if he even liked her.

She sighed and walked out of the elevator herself, and quickly made her way to her car, trying not to freeze to death in the bitter cold.

OOOOOOOOOO

An hour and ten minutes later she heard a key in the lock and smiled. He was always later than he said he would be, but was glad he had his own key so she wouldn't have to get up. They had always had each others house keys, but she gave him permission to use her's whenever, and he did the same. It made things a lot easier.

Sam had changed into one of his hoodies that he had left at her house and some yoga pants made for pregnant women. She loved the hoodie because it smelled like him, and it comforted her. It was starting to get a little snug, and that made her more upset than she would like to admit.

Jack walked in carrying bags of food and smiled at her. "Hey Carter, how ya feelin?"

She smiled back, "Hungry Sir, you're late."

He shrugged, and set the food down on the coffee table then took off his coat. He had changed as well and Sam couldn't help but stare. He was wearing a green plaid button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a pair of dark jeans that actually fit him well. He looked really good to her, and Sam hoped it was just the hormones talking. She couldn't just throw herself at him; Or maybe she could and she was just kidding herself. She knew he had feelings for her, she just didn't know how strong they were.

He sat down next to her and patted her thigh, "You ready to eat?"

She blinked and nodded, "Yeah, sorry, these damn pregnancy hormones make it hard to concentrate."

He huffed a laugh and handed her her favorite Chinese food. It always gave her heartburn, but she didn't care because it always tasted amazing.

They ate in silence, watching some boring documentary on TV.

After he was finished he sat back into the couch and sighed, "I'm so tired. It's been a long day."

She sat back next to him and laid her head on his shoulder, "I'm tired too."

He grimaced, "I'm sure you're a lot more tired than I am, I shouldn't be the one complaining."

She patted his thigh and moved her head from his shoulder, "It's fine. You can always talk to me..you know that right?" She wanted to ask him about his reaction to the news that the baby was a boy, but didn't know how to bring it up, so she didn't.

He looked over at her and smiled faintly, "I do. Thank you Sam."

"Anytime, Sir." She still couldn't bring herself to call him Jack, and he had given up months ago trying to get her to call him anything other than "Sir". It annoyed him at first, but he didn't seem to care much anymore.

Jack sat up, "Oh, before I forget, I brought you something."

She struggled to sit back up and he put his hand on her back and helped her up. She smiled at him in thanks as he turned to where his coat was lying and pulled a small box from the pocket.

He handed it to her and she smiled again and shook it. "What is it?"

He sighed in exasperation, "Open it."

Sam pulled off the wrapping paper and studied the small box. This wasn't what it looked like...was it?

She pulled off the lid and saw it was a mother's bracelet. There weren't any charms on it yet, obviously, but she still loved it.

Her eyes filled up with tears and she quickly wiped them away. Damn those hormones.

He reached over and pulled it out, "It's a mothers bracelet. You can add the baby's birth stone when he's born."

She nodded and reached over and hugged him tight, burying her face in his neck, then mumbling, "Thank you, Sir, I love it. It's perfect."

He rubbed his hands up and down her back a few times then pushed her back slightly, "Can I help you put it on?"

She nodded and held out her left arm. He put it on within seconds and she stared at it in the faint light. It was white gold, with diamonds encrusted in every other link. It had to have cost a fortune, but she knew he would be offended if she refused it because of that, so she kept quiet.

"Thank you so much again."

He took her hand and linked their fingers together then pulled them back to sit against the couch. "Think nothing of it. I can't wait until we can add the baby's birthstone."

Sam smiled in agreement then yawned, "On that note, I think I'm ready to go to bed."

"I am too. So why don't you go get ready and get in bed, and I'll take my leave." He gestured with his other hand towards the door.

"Are you sure you don't want to stay here?" She wished he would. She always felt safer when he did.

He shook his head, "I have to get up really early for some meetings and don't want to disturb you."

"I really don't mind, Sir, but it's ok if you want to leave too."

He sat up and pulled her up with him, embraced her for a second, then pulled back. He wasn't going to be convinced to stay unfortunately.

She walked into her bedroom and got in bed. He followed behind her and sat next to her hip, then put his hand on her stomach. "Is he moving?"

She shook her head, and suddenly wished the baby would, so Jack would keep his hand where it was. Jack had been doing that more and more and Sam loved that he felt comfortable enough to do it.

He frowned in disappointment and rubbed his hand over her belly a few more times, but the baby refused to move, so he moved his hand away.

He smiled at her, "I'll see you tomorrow. Sleep well, and don't hesitate to call if you need anything. I'm serious."

She knew he was and nodded, "Don't worry, I will. Drive safe."

He leaned down and kissed her temple then stood up and smiled down at her. "Night, Sam."

She moved on to her right side, facing him, "Night, Sir. See you tomorrow."

He smiled, then turned and walked away; she didn't see his look of reluctance to leave. He never wanted to leave her, but felt it was more appropriate to, since he was still technically her commanding officer. Something had to change, and soon. Status quo wasn't working anymore.

He made his way out to his truck and drove away. Never seeing the shadows lurking near Sam's bedroom window.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry its taken me so long to update. Is there still interest in this story? Let me know and I'll continue. Thanks so much for the kudos and comments. I love them and they truly do help me improve as a writer. Have a fantastic day!


	14. Chapter 14

As Jack drove away from Carter's house he had the strongest urge to turn around and go back. Something wasn't right.

He kept trying to convince himself that he just wanted to stay with her and that nothing was actually wrong, but he felt worse the further he drove away from her house.

Sighing at his overprotectivness, he decided to turn around and at least check to make sure she was ok. He'd only been gone for fifteen minutes, but it would put his mind at ease.

He turned around and gunned his truck, in a hurry to check on her, praying that there weren't any cops patrolling that particular road.

Jack made it back in seven minutes and quickly killed the engine, and stepped out. The evening was silent and completely still, which made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. Something was definitely wrong.

There should be noises, like dogs barking and raccoons digging in the trash cans, but there wasn't any noise at all.

He quickly opened his truck door and pulled his Beretta out from under the front seat. He chambered a round and crept up behind Sam's car that was parked in the driveway. He still couldn't see or hear anything, so he made his way quietly into her backyard and proceeded to check all the areas.

There was nothing amiss.

He walked around to where her bedroom window was and his blood ran cold. The bushes and flowers under her windowsill were trampled with multiple footprints in the soil visible in the moonlight.

Jack took his keys out and ran to her front door and quietly unlocked it. He was going to sneak up on whomever was in her house and beat the shit out of them. The lock snicked open and he opened the door slowly. It didn't make a noise until the end, where it squeaked slightly. "Dammit", he cursed inwardly.

He paused, but didn't hear any movement, so he walked inside silently and closed the door most of the way, stopping short of actually latching it.

He knew how to be quiet; he used to be black-ops and this was his thing.

He crept down the hallway, keeping his body flat against the wall, his gun hanging from his right hand.

Suddenly he heard small sounds coming from Sam's room. He was right, there was someone or something here. He reached the end of the hallway and snuck a look in her room. There were three shadowy figures standing over Sam; who seemed to be either still asleep or incapacitated. He guessed the latter.

They hadn't heard him because they were conversing quietly. He heard words like "transport" and "hurry" but couldn't make out what they were talking about.

He needed to act quickly.

Stepping out of the shadows, he flicked the light on and pointed his gun at them. In a calm, deadly voice he said, "Who the hell are you and what do you think you're doing?"

They turned around with surprised faces and started reaching for their guns, but Jack waved his gun at them. "Ah, ah, ah..don't even think about it, or I'll kill you. Don't think I won't. Now answer my questions. I'll give you five seconds before I start knee-capping each of you."

The one that was obviously in charge stepped forward, "I'm not giving you any information, O'Neill. You're going to have to kill me."

Jack shrugged, pursing his lips, "That can be arranged. Or...I can just let you rot in prison. I like that idea better actually."

He pulled his phone out, still pointing the gun at the three intruders and dialed the SGC. He quickly apprised Reynolds of the situation and ordered them to get there as fast as possible, then hung up.

"The Calvary is going to be here quickly. Are you sure you don't want to tell me anything?"

The leader shook his head, his face grim, but one of the others blurted out, "We don't know anything, we were just ordered to retrieve Carter and-"

The leader turned and punched his comrade in the face, "Shut the hell up!" The one that was hit quickly covered his face and didn't say anything more, trying to staunch the blood coming out of his nose.

Jack was furious, "Who ordered you to take Carter?"

He smirked, "You might as well give up, O'Neill, I'm not saying anything else."

He wasn't going to talk, that much was clear, but Jack was confident that once they got them back to the SGC, they would be able to at least break the other two.

He clenched his jaw, "Will you bastards at least tell me what you did to her?" He gestured with his gun at Carter, who was still. It scared him.

"She's not in danger. We just gave her a sedative so we could move her easily. We should have just killed her, it would-"

That comment put Jack's rage over the top. He quickly moved over to the leader and pistol-whipped him, knocking him out cold, his body falling limply to the ground. Jack wanted to kill him, but he was more valuable alive at the moment.

The only other one that was still standing quickly put his hands up, "I'm not going to try anything, I don't feel like getting hit in the head." He sat down and didn't say anything more.

Jack felt like he was losing his mind with anger and needed to cool down before the back-up arrived. He took a deep breath and moved to the other side of the bed and quickly reached over and placed his fingers on her neck, checking for a pulse. He kept his eyes on the intruders, making sure they weren't going to try anything. He sighed in relief when he felt her heartbeat. It was steady and strong. It would have been so easy for them to kill her and was so glad that that hadn't happened.

He suddenly felt like a coward for not telling her that he loved her all these months, and vowed to do just that when she woke up. Life was too short to be wasting any more time being an idiot.

Just as he thought that he heard trucks pull up outside the house and saw multiple lights through the window. They had gotten here fast.

The front door burst open and multiple Marines charged into the bedroom with their guns up and shouted at the two that were conscious to put their hands on their heads and lay on their stomachs. They quickly complied and the Marines cuffed them and dragged them out of the room. The remaining Marines cuffed the unconscious leader and turned to Jack, "Sir, what do you want us to do with them?"

Jack pointed to the man they were holding upright, "I want them all thrown in isolation rooms. He's the leader, but I think the other two will be more willing to talk. Have Teal'c and Daniel question them, and save this bastard for me." They nodded, "Yes, Sir. Do you want us to stick around and check for any other intruders?"

Jack shook his head, "I already checked. I'm going to wait for Colonel Carter to wake up, then escort her up to the SGC so we can get her checked out by Doctor Lam. Thanks for the quick response, guys." He tried to smile, but couldn't quite muster it.

"You're welcome, Sir. Nobody messes with one of us and gets away with it." With that they both saluted Jack and drug the intruder out the door. Jack was happy to see him being manhandled. He was going to be sore when he woke up. That made Jack feel a little better.

OOOOOOOOO

Sam woke up with a groan. She felt like she'd been run over by a truck, repeatedly. Her head was pounding and her limbs felt like lead.

She felt a hand on her forehead and cracked her eyes open, seeing Jack looking at her with concern.

"Sir, what's going on?"

Jack grimaced, "Some men tried to take you for reasons that are unknown as of yet. I got to you before they could carry out their plan, but not before they injected you with a sedative."

She was confused, "Why did you come back?"

He moved his hand from her head and shrugged, "Call it a gut-feeling that something wasn't right. I'm just glad I did come back..I had almost convinced myself not to."

She smiled faintly, "I'm glad you did too." There was anger in his eyes that was brewing just below the surface. She could tell he was barely controlling it.

"Sir, can you help me sit up?"

He nodded and put his hand under her back then pushed. She sat up but felt like she was going to throw up. In fact, she was sure she was. "Sir, I'm going to be sick."

He understood immediately and picked her up and hurried into the bathroom, making it just in time as she threw up the meager contents of her stomach.

He turned his back and let her clean herself up. He knew she hated it when people hovered over her when she was like this.

She stood up on shaky feet and walked to the sink and quickly brushed her teeth and washed her hands.

He had his back to her, standing in the doorway. She walked over to him slowly, finally feeling a little better, and put her hand on his waist, "Sir, I'm ok now."

He turned around and pulled her into an embrace. Her pregnant belly was in the way of truly hugging him, but she did her best and pulled him as close as possible.

He walked them out of the bathroom then pulled back slightly, looking at her, their faces inches away.

He shook his head, looking nervous. Sam wondered why.

"Sam, this little incident has convinced me to quit being a damn coward, and to tell you what I've wanted to tell you for months."

He paused and she raised an eyebrow. Jack looked away for a second then looked back at her, "I love you." He didn't give her a chance to respond before continuing, "I want you to live with me so I can keep you safe and so we don't have to take the baby to different houses every night. I want to be with you in every way possible. If you'll have me."

She was shocked that that many emotional things had come out of his mouth all at once. She was actually speechless, and didn't know what to say without sounding like an idiot.

Her silence worried him and she just kept staring at him with wide, blue eyes.

"Sir, I-"

He cut her off before she could say anything else, "At least come stay with me at my house. You obviously aren't safe here. I don't want to worry about you every night."

Sam sighed internally. She wasn't ready to tell him that she loved him. She did, but she was having a hard time voicing it and was glad he gave her an out. "I'll come stay with you. I don't want to be alone anymore. I have..strong..feelings for you too, Sir, but you're still my commanding officer."

He sighed audibly, "I'm going to figure out something, but in the meantime you can still come live with me."

He felt a little like he had been punched in the gut when she didn't say that she loved him back, but he suspected it was more fear of saying the words than her not actually loving him. He knew she did. They were just going to have to take it slow, but he was going to have to retire before anything happened.

She nodded and he pulled her close once again, burying his face in her neck and placed a few soft kisses there. He felt her react and pulled back slightly to look her in the eyes. He didn't see any resistance, so he leaned forward and kissed her tentatively. Her lips were soft and warm, and he deepened the kiss slightly before pulling back. He wanted more, but they needed to get the regs out of the way before they took anything further.

With his arms still around her loosely, he spoke before she could, "I want to go to the SGC and have Lam check you out to make sure nothing is wrong, and I'm going to go talk to the bastards that did this and try to get more information from them. I have a feeling this isn't over."

She nodded, "I don't think so either." She heaved a deep sigh, "Let me get dressed and we can go."

He nodded and walked out of the room to give her privacy. One day he wouldn't have to do that and he hoped it was sooner rather than later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like their relationship is progressing, but not too quickly. Seems to me that this would be what a real life relationship would be like with them. One step forward, two steps back..haha. Also, there are definitely still threats out there for them, and not just from one source. Thanks for reading. Please let me know what you think! :)


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry that it's been so long since I last updated. I kind of got sucked up in writing for The Blacklist, but I'm back and plan on finishing this. I promise not to abandon it..at least if there are people still interested in it...
> 
> This chapter begins right where chapter 14 ended.

Sam walked into the living room dressed in one of Jack's old sweatshirts and a pair of loose-fitting athletic pants. She was starting to become more and more uncomfortable as her pregnancy progressed, and she could only imagine how miserable she was going to be in three months; because none of her clothes fit right anymore and she hated shopping for new ones. Jack hadn't heard her approach, because he was sitting on the couch watching _The Simpsons_ and laughing at something Bart had said. She walked behind him, ran her fingers through his soft hair and said, "Are you ready to go?"

He "Uh, Huh'd" distractedly as she continued to move her fingers through his hair, then he leaned his head forward so she could reach his neck. She ran her fingernails lightly over his neck and through the short hairs at his nape. He still hadn't answered her. "Sir?"

"I guess. Can't we just stay here?" She knew he was only half-serious.

She put a hand on each of his shoulders and squeezed them lightly, "Well we could, but then we'd never get any answers about why they were trying to take me. Don't you want to know?" She took her hands off of his shoulders and stepped back slightly.

She heard him sigh, then he picked up the remote and turned the TV off. He stood up slowly, both knees cracking, and turned to her, then eyed her wardrobe with a raised eyebrow; she just shrugged. "It's the only thing that's comfortable to wear anymore."

He smirked, "Well I have a whole drawer full of old sweatshirts at home that you can wear. Just another perk of moving in with me." He waggled his eyebrows teasingly.

Sam yawned as she began to move towards the door, saying over her shoulder, "Yeah, well we can talk about that later."

She heard Jack following close behind her as she slipped on her boots and opened the door. Then he passed her and opened the truck door for her, and she held onto his shoulder for leverage to step up in the truck, then flopped tiredly back into the seat. She really needed to sleep. Jack went around the front, stepped into the truck quickly and started it, then pulled away from the curb. He glanced at her with a worried expression, "Are you ok, Sam?"

She turned her head toward him, while still laying it on the headrest, "I'm just really tired. I haven't had a good night's rest in a while."

The truck slowed down and began to turn around. "Sir, what are you doing?"

He didn't answer as he pulled his cellphone out and dialed it, then put it to his ear. She could only hear his side of the conversation.

_"This is General O'Neill, I need to talk to Reynolds."_

There was a pause and she tried to question him again, but he put his hand on her thigh and shook his head.

_"Reynolds, Colonel Carter and I aren't going to come in tonight. We'll be there as soon as Carter gets a few hours of sleep. The prisoners should be nice and ready to talk after being in isolation for a while._

Jack nodded his head at whatever Reynolds was saying.

_"Right. Right. Yeah, have Daniel and Teal'c hold off until tomorrow too. Thanks Colonel."_

He turned his phone off, then put it back in his pocket as Sam sat all the way up in anger, "Sir, we need to do our damn jobs. I don't want to be coddled or get any kind of special privileges just because I'm pregnant. I'll be fine." She hated it so much when Jack made decisions for her personally. It was bad enough that he did it professionally, but if they were ever going to make a relationship work, then he needed to stop.

He glanced at her with furrowed eyebrows, "Sam, you're dead on your feet. You need sleep, you can't go on like you did before when you weren't pregnant. If I have to use my privileges as a General than so be it. I'm not letting you back on that base until you get some sleep. I don't want to have to make an order."

She clenched her jaw and said with a low, venom filled voice, "And if you keep pulling rank whenever you feel like it, then this.." She gestured between them with her hand, "Will never work. You can't order me around in our personal life; I won't stand for it. So you better decide if you want me in your personal life, or if you just want to keep it professional. I'll still let you come visit our baby on the weekends." She knew that last sentence was a too harsh, but she was furious and felt like screaming at the top of her lungs.

Jack shook his head, "Sam..."

She cut him off with a hand, "Save it. We're already almost to your house, so I might as well get some sleep since you told Reynolds we're not coming."

Jack didn't say anything else as he pulled into his driveway and killed the engine. Sam was out the door before he could say anything and he ran a tired hand over his face. She had a point, but he was so used to ordering her around all the time that it was going to have to be something he worked on. The changes weren't going to happen overnight.

She was already laying in his bed by the time he walked inside. He couldn't tell if she was asleep, but figured she was too mad to be. He sat down by her hip, with her back facing him, and put a hand on her side. "Sam, you're right, I was being a colossal ass. It's going to take some getting used to, you know that, but I'm going to try to be better." All he heard from her was a sniff and knew she was crying. Regular Sam would never cry over this, but pregnant Sam didn't have much of a chance against the hormones raging through her.

"Sam, please look at me." She reluctantly turned over towards him, but didn't look at him. Her eyes were puffy and her cheeks had red splotches all over them, but she looked as beautiful as ever. He'd been around her a few times over the years when she'd broken down over a friend's death or disappearance, but he'd never been able to do much to comfort her. Sure he hugged her, but that wasn't nearly enough in his mind, and it was always hard to pull away and put a professional distance between them again. He was so damn glad he could do more for her now, because even if they weren't officially together yet, he could still help comfort her in ways he couldn't before.

He rubbed her belly softly, hoping for a kick, but felt nothing and was somewhat disappointed. He'd only ever felt the little guy once, and it had been at least a month since he had. He still didn't know what he felt about having a boy; he needed to discuss it with Sam, but wanted her to bring it up. He just couldn't bring himself to do it. He hated talking about difficult stuff.

Sam sniffed again, bringing him out of his reverie, and glared up at him. She was still mad, and he didn't really blame her. He decided to try a different tactic, "Can I rub your feet for you at least?"

She looked at him as if she was trying to figure out if he had an ulterior motive, but when she saw nothing but genuineness in his eyes, she nodded. She still hadn't said a word to him.

He pulled the blanket down to her feet, then sat on then end of the bed and reached for her left foot. She was still tense and rigid, so he squeezed her calf lightly, "Sam, relax, I'm not going to do anything but help you feel better." She relaxed somewhat, so he began at her heel and worked his way up to her toes. He spent a good amount of time on each toe, and watched her face to see if she was enjoying it. He could tell she was, as much as she clearly didn't want to. He took her other foot in his lap and did the same thing; her eyes were closed by the time he was finished with her right foot, and he thought she was asleep until she said in a quiet voice, "Jack, how do you feel about having a boy?"

_Shit_. He _really_ didn't want to talk about this now, especially when she was so emotional. He sighed and pushed up her pant leg and began massaging her calf, "Honestly, Sam, I'm having a hard time even thinking about it. Every time I do, I see Charlie lying on the ground in a pool of his own blood. I'm even having nightmares about it again. I don't want that to happen to our son." His fingers stopped and he took a deep breath, trying to control his emotion, this was why he didn't want to talk about it. It was too painful, even now.

"Oh, Jack. Honey, that's not going to happen again."

He looked up, surprised at her use of "Honey", but quickly forgot about that when he saw the look on her face. She looked devastated, but for him. It hurt to think that she was hurting for him, especially when the pain over Charlie's death wouldn't ever go away for him, not completely.

He pulled her pant leg back down, then crawled over to her and hugged her to him as tightly as he could with her belly in the way. She put her face by his cheek, kissed the shell of his ear, then whispered, "Jack, you can't let yourself go down that rabbit hole again. I..we're going to need you, more than you realize."

He nodded and said quietly, "I know that, I guess I just don't want to lose the good memories of Charlie and keep the bad ones. Sam...I can hardly remember his face anymore unless I look at a picture. What kind of father will I be again? I don't want to screw this one up." His voice broke at the end, and he put his face in her neck and breathed out, trying to get a handle on his emotions. There had already been enough crying, he didn't need to add to it.

She ran her hands up and down his back soothingly, "You can't think about making mistakes, because we all do. The important thing is to learn from them, we will, and we'll make sure to help each other. We'll always keep Charlie's memories alive, but you can't think about this baby as a replacement. You need to think of him as his brother, that's it."

Jack nodded against her neck, "I'm going to try. That's all I can promise."

She kissed his stubbly cheek and kept her lips against it as she said, "And that's all I ask."

Sam continued to run her hands lightly over his back and felt Jack's breathing slow, and knew he was either already asleep or close to it. He was still dressed, but she was too selfish to wake him up so he could change; she wanted him right where he was.

She was still worried about his feelings towards the baby, and their conversation didn't do anything to allay those concerns. He was obviously still struggling with the it, and she hadn't known that he was having nightmares again; leave it to him to not tell her over his concern for _her_ well-being.

She shifted into a slightly more comfortable position, with her head on Jack's shoulder her arm over his waist. He didn't move much, only to pull her slightly closer and sigh noisily. She ran her hand under his shirt and undershirt, and moved her fingers in small, soothing circles on his lower back to try to calm herself down. It worked, because as her eyelids started to droop, her last conscious thought was that she could get used to being here like this with him. She just hoped they could work through his issues before the baby came.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I felt like the Charlie issue was hanging over their heads, so I tried my best to address it. I know the issue is still there, but at least Sam is aware of it now. Thanks for reading. Once again, I'm sorry for leaving this hanging for so long and I'm perfectly fine with continuing if you all want me to..let me know what you think! :)


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